Highways England urged to redraw motorway signage<\/p>\n
Highways England has been urged to redraw motorway signage in a bid to make the carriageways safer and curb dangerous manoeuvres.<\/p>\n
Motoring organisation Transport Focus carried out a poll of more than 2,000 drivers and found 17 per cent admitted to having made a 'potentially unsafe' move on the motorway because the junction number they were looking for was obscured.<\/p>\n
A further 29 per cent said they had missed a junction at some point because they hadn't noticed the number.<\/p>\n
Of those who said they had experienced difficulties with junction numbers, 74 per cent reported struggling to see them when high-sided vehicles were in the way and 47 per cent said overgrown vegetation was the issue.<\/p>\n
Other motorists claimed some signs were damaged and therefore difficult to read, while some highlighted poor lighting at night harming visibility.<\/p>\n
Worryingly, Transport Focus found evidence of some drivers making last-minute manoeuvres such as swerving across lanes or chevrons after seeing signs at the last minute, with some even opting to reverse along the motorway as a result of missing their junction.<\/p>\n
Chief executive of the organisation Anthony Smith said Highways England should consider having its motorway signs redone in a bid to curb careless driving, including moving junction numbers from the bottom left corner where they may not be easily visible.<\/p>\n
Its report concluded that this would "ensure maximum visibility for the safety and convenience of all road users".<\/p>\n
Highways England said it welcomes any research that aims to increase safety on Britain's roads, but did not comment on whether or not it would be making adjustments to signage.<\/p>\n
There are more than five million road accidents in Britain each year, which result in around 35,000 fatal or serious injuries.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the AA warned that removing the hard shoulder from some stretches of motorway could increase this figure, as could increasing the speed limit past roadworks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Highways England urged to redraw motorway signage Highways England has been urged to redraw motorway signage in a bid to make the carriageways safer and curb dangerous manoeuvres. Motoring organisation Transport Focus carried out a poll of more than 2,000 drivers and found 17 per cent admitted to having made a 'potentially unsafe' move on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n