67. It will be seen that no provision is made in this sign for the inclusion of the route-number of the motorway. We understand that some lengths of motorway will bear not only the United Kingdom classification number but also a number in the European system of international arteries. In our view the most satisfactory way of showing these numbers will be by separate signs, as shown in figure 14, mounted on the central reservation. They too should be provided after every access to the motorway, and it is suggested that they could also be usefully provided at approximately five-mile intervals.
Telephone Signs
68. At one-mile intervals on the first section of the London-Yorkshire Motorway there are emergency telephones situated along the outer edge of the hard shoulder on both sides of the road and connected to a local police station. Each telephone is housed in a grey-green box about 16 inches high supported on a pillar of similar colour 3 feet 9 inches high and is reached through a drop-open door 12 inches high in the front of the box. We were asked to recommend a sign which would clearly identify the installation and which would appear on the front of the box to face oncoming traffic-i.e. partly on the drop-open door and partly on the four-inch ledge above it.
69. Although we had some misgivings both about the colour of the box and about its general appearance, we submitted the design for a sign which we thought satisfactorily fulfilled the requirements laid down for it. This is illustrated in figure 15; the telephone number (which it is important should be visible to the emergency services going to the scene in response to a call) appears on the four-inch ledge above the door and the lower part of the sign on the door itself.
70. The sign was already being manufactured and fixed to the telephone boxes when we were told that at some sites, where the road was in a cutting or on an embankment, the ground beyond the hard shoulder sloped so steeply that it was impossible to stand at the telephone box without discomfort, and it was therefore proposed to turn all the boxes through an angle of 90° and to level a small space of ground in front of them. As a result the sign we had recommended would not now face oncoming traffic, and it was clearly necessary to design a second sign for the side of the box, which was considerably narrower than the front. This second sign is illustrated in figure 16; our freedom in designing it has been restricted not only by the smaller area but by the need to match features on the original panel which are now otiose.
71. Our experience with these signs has thus been somewhat unfortunate, and we strongly urge that if emergency telephone boxes are to be installed on other motorways the whole conception should be revised so that box and sign can be designed as an integral whole. We can see no object, incidentally, in colouring these necessary emergency instruments in a colour the only purpose of which could be to render them as invisible as possible.
Emergency Signs
72. Signs will be needed from time to time to indicate temporary obstructions of the carriageway in the event of accident or when road works are being
16
