Wikipedia

Driver location sign

Driver location signsare signs placed every 500 metres (550 yd) along each side of English motorways, and some other major English roads, to provide information that will allow motorists to know their precise location. As of July 2009,roads in England, but not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, have these signs. This information might be useful in the event of an emergency or breakdown. They were first introduced in 2003, and they complement distance marker posts (small roadside posts used for road maintenance and administrative purposes). Both types of sign display a unique location number. The number, although given without units, is the distance in kilometres from a designated datum location for the road, although signs meant for driver navigation are in miles.

A driver location sign marking location 2.8 kilometres (1.7 mi) on the "B carriageway" (westbound) of theM27

History

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Distance marker posts

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Since at least 1980,motorwayshave had distance marker posts, aka Blakedale Posts, installed at 100 metre intervals alongside thehard shoulder.[1][2]These posts are used to help pinpoint road locations for maintenance and emergency purposes, and also show the direction to the nearest emergency roadside telephone.[1]The numbers on the posts, for which no units are given, are derived from the distance, in kilometres, of the post from a reference datum location such as a city centre, an administrative boundary or some other feature. On theM25for example, distances are referenced to a point near Junction 31 even though the section of the ring road between Junction 31 (post 186.6) and Junction 1a (post 5.7) is theA282,not the M25.[3] On motorways distance marker posts also bear an arrow pointing towards the location of the nearest emergency telephone.[4]

The number used on distance marker posts is also encoded into the numbers associated with motorway emergency roadside telephones.[5]In this way motorway control centre staff can pinpoint the telephone from which a call is being made.[4][6][7]

Items ofhighway furnitureare commonly uniquely identified by a code number attached to or stencilled onto them.[8]On motorways the number from the closest distance location marker is generally incorporated into such identifiers. They are also sent in the signal from traffic cameras to identify the location of the camera.[9][10]

Driver location signs

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Driver location signs on theM25

The requirements for the design and implementation of driver location signs (DLS) for motorways and all-purpose trunk roads are specified in a document published byHighways England.[11]

These signs give the same location information as distance marker posts, but more visibly on larger signs, which are generally placed at 500-metre (550-yard) intervals. If obstacles prevent signs from being spaced at 500-metre intervals, then the interval must be reduced to either 400 or 300 metres (440 or 330 yd). By the end of the 2009 financial year, 80 per cent of England's motorway network had been fitted with 16,000 driver location signs at a cost of £5.9 million (about £570 each). It was expected that the remaining 20% of the motorway network would be covered by April 2010 at a cost of £1.6 million.[2]As of July 2009driver location signs had not been erected in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Driver location sign, emergency telephone and location marker post at position 2.8 on the "B" carriageway of theM27inHampshire

By the early 2000smobile phoneswere being used as the primary means of reporting accidents.[12]This required the government to rethink marker posts. By early 2007, after experiments in the preceding four years on parts of theM25andM6showed a 10% improvement in emergency service response times,[2]a programme to erect driver location signs at 500-metre (550 yd) intervals on many motorways was commenced in England.[1][13]The need for more visible roadside location information was shown in 2007, in an incident on a motorway before the driver location signs had been erected. The Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service reported that after a serious collision on theM5,their control centre was inundated with mobile phone calls from drivers. Callers gave the operators locations stretching over 40 miles (64 km) of road. As a result, four emergency service centres were mobilised instead of just one.[14]

Research on trial sections of motorways showed that emergency service organisations responded 10 per cent more rapidly when a motorway had driver location signs than when it did not. Driver locations signs are more visible than the small distance marker posts, enabling motorists to know their location more accurately and emergency services to reach incidents more quickly.[2]The analysis of an exercise run by the Highways Agency (Exercise Hermes) in which a serious traffic accident was simulated reported that call handlers in control rooms should request marker post or location sign locations when taking calls from members of the public.[15]

Driver location signs have three pieces of information:

  • The road identifier
  • The carriageway identifier
  • The location

The location is identical to the location given on marker posts. The most commonly used carriageway identifiers are the letters "A", "B", "J", "K", "L" and "M".[16]The letter "A" ( "Away from London" ) normally (but not always)[17]denotes carriageways leaving London (or clockwise in the case of the M25 & M60) and "B" ( "Back to London" ) is used for carriageways going to London (anticlockwise on the M25 & M60). Location numbers increase in the direction of travel of the "A" carriageway, and decrease in the direction of travel of the "B" carriageway. The letters "J", "K", "L" and "M" denote junction slip roads. This is illustrated below.

Usual carriageway identifiers used on driver location signs

Letters "C" and "D" have been allocated for service roads adjacent to the "A" and "B" carriageways.[16]The regulations require that each driver location sign is unique within the United Kingdom.[1]

Rerouting

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If a road is rerouted, then it is highly likely that there will be some changes in the end-to-end length of the road concerned which couldaffect the valueson driver location signs. The publicly available Highways Agency documentation does not cover this possibility,[16]but it will be noticed that the four carriageway identifiers "E", "F", "G" and "H" have not been allocated.

Governing legislation

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Section 64 of theRoad Traffic Regulation Act 1984authorises the Secretary of State for Transport to regulate the design of road signs in England, Scotland and Wales. The Secretary of State used this provision to authorise the design of driver location signs and to use the same location information on them as on the distance marker posts.

In 2016, driver location signs were added to Schedule 11 of theTraffic Signs Regulations and General Directions2016(TSRGD). Diagram 2718 shows a driver location sign with the description, "Route number and location reference".[18]

Public awareness

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In a road users satisfaction survey conducted during the second quarter of 2012 in the M25 area, respondents were shown a picture of a driver location sign and asked whether they had seen similar signs and also what they thought the signs were for. Some 59% of respondents had seen such a sign, but 76% of drivers did not know what the signs were for.[19]

In 2021, Rule 277 of the Highway Code[20]was updated with images to ensure that readers understand how to use distance marker posts and driver location signs to identify and communicate their location to emergency services.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcdHighway Agency (December 2010)."Interim Advice Note 93/10 (Revision 1) – Driver Location Signs Interim Performance Specification"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 23 December 2010.Retrieved16 December2010.
  2. ^abcdHansard."21 Oct 2009: Column 1446W".Retrieved4 November2009.
  3. ^"M25 Road Network Driver Location Signs"(PDF).Highways Agency.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 5 June 2011.Retrieved13 May2011.
  4. ^abHighways Agency."Driver Location Signs – Frequently Asked Questions".Archived fromthe originalon 3 December 2010.Retrieved10 February2010.
  5. ^"Practice Advice on the Policing of Roads"(PDF).National Policing Improvement Agency. 2007. p. 58. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 7 February 2014.Retrieved8 March2013.
  6. ^Know Your Traffic Signs(PDF).London: Department for Transport. 2010. p. 143.ISBN978-0-11-552855-2.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 24 April 2011.Retrieved26 January2011.
  7. ^Automobile Association."Breakdown Advice".Retrieved10 February2010.
  8. ^"Highways Agency Strategic Plan for Integration".Highways Agency.Archived fromthe originalon 12 September 2012.Retrieved21 April2010.
  9. ^"Traffic Cameras".Highways Agency.Archived fromthe originalon 29 April 2010.Retrieved23 April2010.
  10. ^"Live traffic information covering England's motorways and major A roads".Highways Agency.Archived fromthe originalon 27 October 2009.Retrieved21 April2010.
  11. ^Driver location signs(Report). Rev. 2. Highways England. February 2020 [Rev. 0 July 2019; Rev. 1 January 2020]. CD193 (formerly IAN 93/10).[permanent dead link‍]
  12. ^Highway Agency."Driver Location Signs (March 2007)".Archived fromthe originalon 8 June 2009.Retrieved23 July2009.
  13. ^Highway Agency."Driver Location Signs (Driver Location Signs)".Archived fromthe originalon 3 June 2009.Retrieved7 June2009.
  14. ^"Motorway Markers".Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk. 31 August 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 3 December 2009.Retrieved12 November2010.
  15. ^"Exercise Hermes".Highways Agency.January 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 6 June 2011.Retrieved30 March2010.
  16. ^abcHighway Agency."Identification of Incident Locations".Archived fromthe originalon 17 March 2010.Retrieved11 June2009.
  17. ^For example theM32
  18. ^"Statutory Instrument 2016 No. 362; The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016".16 March 2016.Retrieved10 March2024.
  19. ^"Area 5 Road Users' Satisfaction Survey February to July 2012"(PDF).Highways Agency. p. 14. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 8 July 2015.Retrieved3 March2013.
  20. ^"The Highway Code: Breakdowns and incidents".Highways Agency.Retrieved4 March2024.
  21. ^"Updates: The Highway Code".Highways Agency.Retrieved4 March2024.
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