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The vital road safety functions of ‘Keep left’ road signs

Malcolm Bulpitt Loose, Maidstone Kent ME15
08 June 2018
 

Oh dear! I never thought that I would have to try and put John Dales back on the right track about one of his ideas for improving our urban environment (LTT 25 May). I have sometimes had misgivings about his suggestions, but never considered it necessary to question the rationale about his statements until now. In the last issue John questions the need for, and usefulness, of Diagram 610 [Keep left/Keep right] signs, suggests that in some cases they are over-used, and also drifts into the realm of considering if central refuge islands are really necessary. As I expand this letter John will realise that I have an interest in all these factors. In many I am probably his sole bête noire!

Back in the late 1980s, when we had go-ahead highway authorities such as my then employer Kent County Council, their traffic and safety engineers had the ability and budgets to actually find out what their local road users wanted and, within reason, make provision for their requirements. Surveys undertaken by my team in Kent showed that on busy local distributor roads in urban areas pedestrians suggested a preference for frequent informal facilities to safely cross the road rather than widely spaced formal ones. So came into being our practice at the time of implementing ‘strings-of-pearls’ refuge islands where we had the space. Other authorities followed suit. These islands obviously had the ability to restrict potentially dangerous overtaking manoeuvres. We were also able to shown that they helped to enforce speed limits. 

Being potential ‘obstructions’ in the middle of busy roads, we as safety engineers required the islands to be suitably marked by pairs of Dia. 610s on their noses. These would also assist pedestrians from feeling vulnerable by just standing on an unmarked raised area between two traffic streams. This then raised another issue. Even in that comparatively well-funded era, cleaning the 610 signs of dried spray, muck, etc. after each period of bad weather was an impossibility, and in poor lighting conditions these signs were frequently struck. Enter the use of Refuge Indicator Columns and high-mounted (out of the spray zone) 610 signs. In the early 1990s I wrote one of Kent’s well-regarded Safety Practice Notes encouraging implementation of such facilities. This became a de facto policy as they were shown to improve pedestrian safety and to reduce vehicle crashes. Twenty-five years later, with restricted funds for essential maintenance, I stand firm by my combining the use of both low and high mounted Dia.610 signs as safety measures. To quote William Morris “I know them to be useful”!

Some years later (in another professional life) I was called as an expert witness in a fatal accident inquiry in a Scottish Sherriff’s Court. A road crash had occurred when a vehicle had struck an unlit and partly unsigned refuge island on a poorly illuminated road on the edge of a Scottish city. The vehicle was directed by the refuge island’s kerb up-stand into the opposing carriageway resulting in fatal injury. The refuge island had originally been equipped with a pair of internally illuminated Dia. 610s. One of these had apparently been hit earlier in poor weather conditions and not replaced. No need some would say – they are not mandatory. Had there been a high-mounted 610 on a lit Refuge Indicator Column to back-up the missing sign (or had this been rapidly replaced) the incident would probably not have occurred. Dia. 610 signs – “Reader, I know them to be useful”.

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