Traffic Signs

• Traffic signs play a vital role in directing, informing and controlling road users’ behaviour in an effort to make the roads as safe as possible for everyone
• Knowledge of traffic signs is essential for all road users, including experienced professional drivers
• This book aims to illustrate and explain the most common traffic signs that the road user is likely to encounter
• New traffic signs conveying new messages and in new formats are introduced from time to time
• Events that called for new signs

  • Britain’s first motorway
  • Air quality zones
  • The reintroduction of trams
  • Advance stop lines
  • Vehicle-activated signs
  • Road-charging schemes
• Responsibility for traffic signs is split among various authorities in the UK
• Authorities responsible for traffic signs in the UK

  • National Highways in England
  • The Welsh Government in Wales
  • The Scottish Government in Scotland
  • The Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland
  • Local or regional highway authorities
• The central administrations are responsible for the UK’s strategic road network
• Strategic roads are the highways that link cities, areas of population, ports and airports
• Local or regional highway authorities are responsible for local roads
• Traffic signs must conform to the designs prescribed in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (TSRGD)
• Signs must be consistent both in appearance and in the way they are used
• Traffic signs remain the most effective method of communicating to all road users what they need to know to complete their journey safely, efficiently and within the law
• The design of traffic signs and road markings can vary in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• It was probably the Romans who first used ‘traffic signs’ in Britain
• Most early signposts were erected by private individuals at their own expense
• A law passed in 1697 allowed magistrates to direct that inscribed stones or posts be erected at junctions between highways
• It was not until after the General Turnpike Act 1773 that guide posts or fingerposts became more common
• During the second half of the nineteenth century, bicycles became more popular
• ‘Danger’ and ‘caution’ signs were erected at the top of steep hills for early cyclists

  
• The year 1896 heralded the era of the motor car
• The Motor Car Act 1903 made local authorities responsible for placing certain warning and prohibitory signs

  
• ‘A’ and ‘B’ numbering of roads was introduced in 1921
• Town or village name signs and warning signs for schools, level crossings and double bends were introduced in 1921
• In 1931, a committee chaired by Sir Henry Maybury was asked to recommend improvements to the signing then in use
• By 1933, further new signs began to appear, including ‘No entry’ and ‘Keep left’ signs
• It was not until after 1918 that white lines began to appear on British roads
• In 1926, the first Ministry of Transport circular on the subject laid down general principles on the use of white lines
• Reflecting road studs (often referred to as ‘cat’s eyes’) first came into use in 1934
• In 1959, regulations came into effect to control overtaking by the use of double white lines
• The Anderson Committee was set up in 1958 to consider new designs for motorway signs
• In 1961, the Worboys Committee began to review the complete system of traffic signing
• Work began on the conversion of British signs in 1965
• There are three basic types of traffic sign: signs that give orders, signs that warn and signs that give information
• Traffic sign shapes


  • Circles give orders
  • Triangles warn
  • Rectangles inform
• Traffic sign colours


  • Blue circles generally give a mandatory instruction
  • Red rings or circles indicate prohibitions
  • Blue rectangles are used for information signs
  • Green rectangles are used for direction signs on primary routes
  • White rectangles are used for direction signs on non-primary routes
• All triangular signs are red
• The words ‘must’ or ‘must not’ refer to legal requirements that have to be obeyed
• East India Dock Road

  • Category E
  • Category C
• No vehicles over maximum width shown