Traffic Signs Committee
Report
To the Rt. Hon. Michael Noble, M.P., Secretary of State for Scotland and the Rt. Hon. Ernest Marples, M.P., Minister of Transport.
1. We were asked to review traffic signs on all-purpose roads, as distinct from motorways, including roads in urban areas and to recommend what changes should be made.
2. We were appointed in December 1961. We held our first meeting in January 1962. We have held twenty meetings in all most of them lasting the whole day. These meetings included several journeys to inspect experimental signs which had been put up by the roadside in town and country. We have not worked through sub-committees but have been assisted by a Departmental Working Party which included representatives from the Road Research Laboratory. The Working Party studied in detail all sections of our field of work and submitted to us working papers which provided a most useful basis for our discussions. At the outset members of the Working Party visited Continental countries and were asked to put before us detailed comparisons of Continental and British practice. Without the help of the Working Party it would have been quite impossible for us to cover so complex a field in a little over a year.
3. We should begin by defining the meaning and explaining the implications of the terms 'traffic signs' and 'all-purpose roads'.
4. Traffic signs are defined in the Road Traffic Act 1960 as ' any object or device (whether fixed or portable) for conveying to traffic on roads, or any specified description of traffic, warnings, information, requirements, restrictions or prohibitions of any description specified by regulations made by the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly or authorised by the appropriate Minister, and any line or mark on a road for so conveying such warnings, information, requirements, restrictions or prohibitions'. They therefore include
1
