Page:Report of the Traffic Signs Committee (1963).pdf/59

 215. Endeavours by Departments in the past to prescribe a uniform bus stop sign have, we understand, broken down owing to lack of agreement amongst the bus interests. We believe that a uniform design for bus stop signs and their mounting (adaptable by individual bus companies) is still a practical necessity in the interests of amenity, recognition by bus users, and distinction from other signs. We therefore recommend that a well designed uniform bus stop sign be prescribed in Regulations.

216. Although street name plates and house numbers are not traffic signs, we. have thought it proper, as have previous Traffic Signs Committees, to consider them.

We have seen the Circular to local authorities recently issued on this subject by the Departments and we very much agree with its statement that a higher standard is necessary in street name plates and house numbers to assist people in finding their way especially in emergencies. We endorse its main recommendations namely that street name plates should be mounted as low as practicable, on both sides of the street, at intervals of not more than 200 yards, unobstructed by trees or other growth, and if possible under the illumination of street lamps; that houses should be numbered so that when travelling from the centre of the town a driver finds the odd numbers on the left hand side and the even numbers on the right; that succeeding numbers should be approximately opposite one another even though this requires the omission of certain numbers when frontages vary; and that all house numbers should be conspicuously shown on their gates, if any, otherwise on their doors.

217. With the construction of new by-passes those who have commercial interests in the places by-passed have tended to feel that they will lose business from travellers and in some cases they have pressed for traffic signs to be put up near the junctions of the town roads and the by-pass to indicate that services and facilities are available. In our view this requirement is more properly dealt with by advertisements off the highway than by traffic signs on it and we recommend that traffic signs should not be used for this purpose. Because of the increasing number of places being by-passed we would have thought it reasonable to assume that travellers would often know, or be able to judge from their maps, whether services are likely to be available in these places. But in so far as advertisements are necessary or desirable it may be preferable for them to take the form of a single, composite sign rather than a number of individual signs. This is primarily a matter for local planning authorities.

218. The present practice is that signs which are required for general use are prescribed in Regulations but that (a) pending the necessary amendment of Regulations, (b) in order to legalise a variation of a prescribed sign not already permitted by Regulation, or (c) when a sign is required only locally or occasion ally, it is authorised by the Minister for use at a specified site.