Warning on 'road sign confusion'

An abundance of signs can be confusing, the foundation says

Drivers are in danger of having accidents because they are being overloaded with journey information, the RAC Foundation has warned.

A clutter of contradictory signs cause confusion that can lead to crashes, executive director Edmund King will tell a London transport conference.

The popularity of in-car devices adds to this "overload", he will say.

The foundation is calling for a review of signing and urging drivers to plan journeys in advance.

Highly-trained people can manage seven or eight pieces of information, but for Joe or Juliet Public, it's really only three or four Sheila Rainger RAC Foundation Send us your comments

The foundation cites evidence that the average motorist can deal with little more than three pieces of information at one time.

That could include a radio traffic report, a warning sign ahead and direction advice from a satellite navigation system, it says.

The RAC Foundation's Sheila Rainger explained: "There's all the information in the car, hi-tech devices, and there's also all the information outside the car provided by road signs, traffic lights, speed limits - perhaps painted on the road.

"There's only so much the brain can take in at any one time and a real danger something really important like a red light could be missed."

Signage worry

"Very highly-trained people like fighter pilots can manage seven or eight pieces of information coming at them, but for Joe or Juliet Public, it's really only three or four.

The RAC Foundation's Edmund King added: "We've all been there, driving along, a little bit lost, trying to follow directions in an unknown area.

"We will actually turn the radio down and tell passengers to be quiet and we do this instinctively to avoid information overload.

"Let's make the signs clearer, let's make them plainer, let's have only the signs that we really need."

The RAC Foundation says thousands of the UK's road signs are confusing or have disappeared, been damaged or obscured with grime and foliage.

He is calling for signs to be put up further back from multi-lane entries to tell drivers which lane they need to get into.