Such a sign is normally the work of an experienced designer, and if manufacturers do not employ staff capable of producing signs of good standard they should seek outside professional advice . Alternatively, Ministers could employ a designer to draw up a set of three-dimensional standards which manufacturers could use as models.
282. Bracing is normally needed on all but the smaller signs and cannot be avoided where sheet materials or thin sections are used. We think it better to accept that the bracing will be visible and to ensure that it is unobtrusive, rather than to attempt to conceal it behind a cover. The aim should be to ensure that the sign is as inconspicuous as possible from behind. The back of the sign and the bracing should be neat and coloured grey (paragraph 47).
283. A good traffic sign, apart from being well designed, should have as long a life as possible and should retain its original appearance throughout. These characteristics can only be achieved by the employment of sound manufacturing methods and best quality materials . Our problem has been to consider whether present standards are adequate or whether new methods and better materials are available and could be employed . The apparent ease with which some of our present signs are bent or removed by hooligans seems to us to indicate either that our standards are inadequate or that insufficient attention is paid to them by sign makers.
British Standard No. 873, to which we have referred elsewhere in this report, specifies the materials, quality and finish of road traffic signs and of the posts and fittings which support them. Minimum standards for construction are also specified and compliance with its standards should be made a condition of the purchase of new signs.
284. Since the war the faces of most roadside signs have been constructed of either cast or sheet aluminium or aluminium alloy. This is reasonable in cost, resists corrosion, is light in weight and, in the case of sheet aluminium, can be readily embossed . This latter is an important feature in the manufacture of signs required in large numbers in which it is common practice to form the message by embossing the symbol, legend and border on the sign plate. For these reasons aluminium will continue to have an undoubted advantage in future sign construction.
Our attention has been drawn to the merits of vitreous enamelled sheet steel in the construction of sign plates. Signs made in this material and dating from before the war are still to be seen but this method of surfacing was largely abandoned after the war, both because sheet steel was scarce and because at that time vitreous enamel had certain defects for sign surfaces. The main defect has been its liability to chipping and the consequent corrosion of the sign plate as can be seen by the number of plates still on our roads which have been damaged this way. However, we understand that by improved methods of manufacture this defect has been largely overcome. Vitreous enamel has the advantage that its colours are permanent. We think that trials of signs in this material should be conducted in order to assess the potentialities of vitreous enamel.
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