Remove street signs for better safety, say experts
Roads would be safer if thousands of road signs and traffic lights were removed and streets redesigned to leave drivers and pedestrians uncertain about who has priority, a major new report has claimed...
Giving drivers less information by removing signs will encourage them to slow down to negotiate a safer course along high streets and across junctions
The ‘Travel is Good’ report also says manufacturers should be forced to fit the latest technology to all cars as standard when they are developed and signs could be replaced by in-car head-up displays that warn of dangers ahead.
Barriers and signs such as railings, kerbs, traffic lights and white lines cause crashes because people assume they will keep them safe and therefore fail to focus on what other road users are doing.
Giving drivers less information by removing signs will encourage them to slow down to negotiate a safer course along high streets and across junctions, says the report by the County Surveyors’ Society, which represents local authority directors responsible for most roads in England and Wales.
It calls for widespread adoption of the concept of ‘shared space’, pioneered in the Netherlands and better known in Britain as ‘naked streets’.
The report says: “Paradoxically, creating barriers and divisions may worsen safety because drivers and riders feel more confident and speed up, despite the limitations on the speed at which the human mind can take in the amount of information now displayed on our roads. The human response to increased in-car and on-road safety may be to increase risky behaviour.
“There is some evidence that the removal of control and the creation of uncertainty can help slow traffic and elicit more considerate behaviour.”
Research has shown accident reduction of 35% when schemes have been trialled and reduced traffic speeds.
The report adds that a much greater use of technology in cars and on the roads could also enhance safety.
The report said: “1,500 accidents a year across the European Union could be avoided if 0.6% of vehicles were equipped with systems helping them stay in lane or to overtake.
“Head-up displays in vehicles would allow roads to be cleared of the current confusion of signs. Road safety would be helped by imposing speed limits which vary according to, for example, weather, presence of children, cyclists.
“CSS calls for a willingness to impose statutory requirements on manufacturers to fit safety features as standard as vehicles are developed.”
Using the nation’s CCTV network of more than four million cameras could also provide information, allow effective road pricing and allow for electronic traffic calming without the need for road humps and other street furniture.
Richard Wills, CSS president, said: “This report is not intended to find definitive answers, it is intended to stimulate debate.”
For details and copies, log on to www.cssnet.org or email css@wiltshire.gov.uk
‘Travel is Good’ report recommendations
- Investment in the development of new technologies, working with manufacturers to identify safety approaches
- An emphasis on technology to inform the driver rather than limiting the car directly
- A willingness to impose statutory requirements to fit safety features as standard
- The effective deployment of technology to deliver real-time information systems to inform journey choices, optimise routes and travel times and deal with diversions following incidents
- The roll-out of more active traffic management systems
- An improvement in the public realm by the better use of speed and parking management