Government want to get rid of ‘pointless’ road signs

A new taskforce and consultation are announced to tackle the overuse of road signs

Government want to get rid of ‘pointless’ road signs
A 2013 report found the number of road signs had doubled in the last 20 years

Steps towards obliterating pointless road signs were announced by the Department for Transport on 28 August 2015.

A taskforce overseen by Sir Alan Duncan MP will tackle the overuse of traffic signs while a consultation proposes a range of new measures. These include ‘remove by’ dates for temporary signs, making sure signs are visible on unlit roads, avoiding distracting adverts and logos.

Government say the taskforce forms ‘part of ongoing work to make roads safer and navigation easier’ for motorists.

Transport Secretary Patrick Mcloughlin said: “Useless traffic signs blight our landscape, waste taxpayers’ cash and can be a dangerous distraction to drivers.

We are restoring common sense to Britain’s roads while ensuring drivers have the information they need to get about safely.”

Research carried out by the Department in 2013 to inform the Traffic Signs Policy Review showed that the number of traffic signs has doubled in the last 20 years.

Britain is renowned for having one of the best traffic signing systems in the world but the 2002 legislation that underpins it is now widely viewed as out of date, meaning some signs are either confusing, redundant, or both.

Sir Alan Duncan said: “I have been campaigning on this issue for twenty years. I am delighted to lead this initiative. The UK has erected thousands of road signs which are completely unnecessary, such as traffic light warning signs when you can see the lights themselves.”

For the last 3 years DfT has also sponsored the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Reducing Sign Clutter award, to highlight and reward good practice by local authorities.

The taskforce will present its recommendations to government by December 2015.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

Have your say!

0 0

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.