On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 9:43:15 +0100, Grant Mason wrote
(in message ):

Probably depends on the location. Some roads have been made safer by
doing just that. Certianly the experience where roads have been
treated with lots of paint and signage has often been that drivers
simply speed up and the crash rate remains unchanged.

DfT research would appear to suggest otherwise.

A number of test villages covering 30, 40, 50 and 60 limits. A variety of
signage and paint changes. Every one resulted in lower mean and 85th
percentile speeds.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...dft_roads_5047
60-02.hcsp

There is a difference here. The study you quote is specifically about traffic
calming - a mix of reducing speed limits, reducing road widths, signage, road
markings etc. I would expect, in general, that if you lower the speed limit
AND give the appearance that it may be enforced then speeds are likely to
drop.

The argument though is about signage in general. For example, if you approach
a cross roads and road markings/signage clearly show that you have right of
way, then I say that the majority of drivers will pass through it faster than
if it has no road markings at all in which case the majority of drivers will
slow down as they preapre to 'negotiate' with the other road users who will
give way to whom.

Similarly, I believe that there are too mane, far too many, bend warnings
(for example). The majority of the bends being warned about are clearly
visible, yet drivers are conditioned to requiring the signs, and appear to
lose the capability of seeing bends for themselves when they aren't signed -
leading to yet more signs. At the same time, because there are so many
warning signs, drivers get used to just not taking any notice - and so bad
bends now require extra high visibility signs (big yellow backgrounds). Take
away all bend warnings EXCEPT where the bend or it's severity is not visible
and drivers would have to get used to looking through that piece of glass put
in front of them and observe if that grey/black strip they are on is going
off to one side !

Simon