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Showing posts with the label transport

Sign O’The Times

In April 2016, Parliament enacted legislation enabling councils to remove out of date and unnecessary road signs. Nearly 6 years  later, and the difference is negligible, but the intention behind it is admirable. Road signs as we know them today really began in 1963, when the British Government commissioned a review into the signage used on the nation’s roads. The Worboys Report (named after the chair of the committee, ICI’s Sir Walter Worboys) re-defined and standardised the signage in use, replacing the inconsistent, localised, often incoherent and ill-placed text-based warnings, with the clear, pictogram versions that we know today.  Against a background of an enormous increase in car ownership, the governments of the 50’s and 60’s were tasked with modernising the road network, which, with the exception of the M1 (opened 1959) was still recognisably pre-war. The combination of confusing signs, a young population eager to enjoy the freedom of the road, no drink driving laws,...