This report describes the findings of the third signing survey carried out after the revision of Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual (Department of Transport, 1991, IRRD 842870), and the New Roads and Streets Act 1992. The main points to emerge were: (i) the standard of signing shows an encouraging improvement; (ii) the number of worksites observed in the 1993 survey (157) was equivalent to those studied in 1990/1 and the 1970's. In 1993, however, significantly more small urban worksites were observed; (iii) the guarding of worksites had improved significantly with 40 sites using full barriers with tapping rails compared with only 6 in the 1991 survey; (iv) there is now a requirement for each street works each street works site to include an information board, and in the 1993 survey 33 per cent were observed to have them compared with two per cent in 1991. However, in 1993 nearly half (46 per cent) of all sites still had no means of identifying whom to contact in case of an emergency; (v) the proportion of temporary traffic signals operated by vehicle activation had increased in the 1993 survey to 78 per cent, compared with 64 per cent in the previous two surveys. (A) For the abstracts of the previous two surveys see IRRD 851778.
Abstract