FEATURE
SIGNS AND LINES
You can remove the sign clutter in parking zone areas, but you have to balance that against clarity for the motorist
long been campaigning to get changes to the traffic signs regulation to help achieve this, initiating a Neat Streets project in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics that has already had a significant impact on cutting the clutter. Martin Low, City Commissioner of
Transportation for Westminster, believes the changes have already had a positive effect on the traffic environment: ‘Westminster City Council has been passionate about improving the public realm by reducing street clutter for many years.’ Between 2009 and 2012, the council’s Neat Streets team removed 10-11 tonnes of signs, railings and other assets on the Westminster City Council road network – including 648 signs – that were deemed unnecessary or redundant.
Visually improved Low says: ‘Through the combination of the signs authorisations that we’ve had and getting people to think appropriately about where to remove signs, we’ve ended up in an environment that is much, much better from the perspective of visual intrusion. But also, importantly, road users aren’t being overloaded with too much information. If you can remove the number of signs, you can often improve compliance, because you’re getting people to focus on what they need to be looking at in order to comply with the controls.’ While the Traffic Signs Review’s impact on encouraging local authorities to reduce street clutter may have immediate benefits for an urban council like Westminster, its
28 MARCH 2013
impact is likely to be less in more rural areas, where the need to reduce clutter or introduce new types of signage is not so pressing.
Alan Thorndyke, Highways Network Manager at Suffolk County Council – which has responsibility for a mix of both urban and rural signage – also has a favourable view of the review. However, despite sign clutter not being such a hot topic, Thorndyke says: ‘The proposals for changes coming from the Traffic Signs Review are generally positive, and they give us a bit more flexibility. However, we haven’t had a clamour from our communities about sign clutter. The impact of it tends to be more when urban developments result in additional signage being added to existing posts.’ Thorndyke continues: ‘With the very tight funding issues we have at the moment, we have to balance the priority on spending on signs with spending
elsewhere. We have to take a pragmatic approach in trying to address sign clutter, alongside other funding priorities.’
Freedom
Specific sign authorisation by the DfT is still required for signs and markings not covered by the mass authorisations, but it is possible that further mass authorisations will cover other signage areas ahead of the new TSRGD statutory instrument in 2014. In order to facilitate the new approach, the DfT website now has copies of all traffic sign authorisations made since January 2011, enabling the departments dealing with traffic signs to adopt best practice in designing and delivering signage. Low from Westminster views the policy of giving councils more freedom to decide about signs as a positive development: ‘The whole traffic signs review process has encouraged local authorities to benefit
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