driver location sign

Since at least 1980, motorways have had distance marker posts, aka Blakedale Posts, installed at 100 metre intervals alongside the hard shoulder. These posts are used to help pinpoint road locations for maintenance and emergency purposes, and also show the direction to the nearest emergency roadside telephone. The numbers on the posts, for which no units are given, are derived from the distance, in kilometres, of the post from a reference datum location such as a city centre, an administrative boundary or some other feature. On the M25 for example, distances are referenced to a point near Junction 31 even though the section of the ring road between Junction 31 (post 186.6) and Junction 1a (post 5.7) is the A282, not the M25.{{Cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/documents/070921-Final_DLS_map.pdf |title=M25 Road Network Driver Location Signs |publisher=Highways Agency |access-date=13 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605140242/http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/documents/070921-Final_DLS_map.pdf |archive-date= 5 June 2011 }}

On motorways distance marker posts also bear an arrow pointing towards the location of the nearest emergency telephone.{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/16049.htm |title=Driver Location Signs – Frequently Asked Questions |author=Highways Agency |access-date=10 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203121751/http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/16049.htm |archive-date= 3 December 2010 }}

The number used on distance marker posts is also encoded into the numbers associated with motorway emergency roadside telephones.{{cite web|title=Practice Advice on the Policing of Roads |url=http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2007/2007UOPolofRoads.pdf |publisher=National Policing Improvement Agency |year=2007 |page=58 |access-date=8 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140207012648/http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2007/2007UOPolofRoads.pdf |archive-date= 7 February 2014 }} In this way motorway control centre staff can pinpoint the telephone from which a call is being made.{{cite book

|url=http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_191955.pdf

|title=Know Your Traffic Signs

|publisher=Department for Transport

|location=London

|page=143

|year=2010

|isbn=978-0-11-552855-2

|access-date=26 January 2011

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110424140245/http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/%40dg/%40en/%40motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_191955.pdf

|archive-date=24 April 2011

}}{{cite web |url = http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/breakdown_advice/driver-location-signs.html |title = Breakdown Advice |author = Automobile Association |access-date = 10 February 2010}}

Items of highway furniture are commonly uniquely identified by a code number attached to or stencilled onto them.{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/10845.htm |title=Highways Agency Strategic Plan for Integration |publisher=Highways Agency |access-date=21 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912153511/http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/10845.htm |archive-date=12 September 2012 }} On motorways the number from the closest distance location marker is generally incorporated into such identifiers. They are also sent in the signal from traffic cameras to identify the location of the camera.{{cite web |url = http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic/15887.aspx |title = Traffic Cameras |publisher = Highways Agency |access-date = 23 April 2010 |archive-date = 29 April 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100429130543/http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic/15887.aspx |url-status = dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.trafficengland.com/index.aspx |title=Live traffic information covering England's motorways and major A roads |publisher=Highways Agency |access-date=21 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027233428/http://www.trafficengland.com/index.aspx |archive-date=27 October 2009 }}

File:070921-Final DLS map.pdf]]

The requirements for the design and implementation of driver location signs (DLS) for motorways and all-purpose trunk roads are specified in a document published by Highways England.{{Cite report|title=Driver location signs|url=https://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/prod/attachments/3a8e4a48-56f9-4165-845e-aab8b566c17d|publisher=Highways England|ID=CD193 (formerly IAN 93/10)|version=Rev. 2|date=February 2020|orig-date=Rev. 0 July 2019; Rev. 1 January 2020}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

These signs give the same location information as distance marker posts, but more visibly on larger signs, which are generally placed at {{convert|500|m|yd|adj=on|abbr=off}} intervals. If obstacles prevent signs from being spaced at 500-metre intervals, then the interval must be reduced to either {{convert|400|or|300|m|yd}}. By the end of the 2009 financial year, 80% of England's motorway network had been fitted with 16,000 driver location signs at a cost of £5.9 million (about £570 each). It was expected that the remaining 20% of the motorway network would be covered by April 2010 at a cost of £1.6 million. {{as of|July 2009}} driver location signs had not been erected in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

File:M27 DLS Tel cropped.jpg in Hampshire]]

By the early 2000s mobile phones were being used as the primary means of reporting accidents.{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/14730.aspx |author=Highway Agency |title=Driver Location Signs (March 2007) |access-date=23 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608080725/http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/14730.aspx |archive-date=8 June 2009 }} This required the government to rethink marker posts. By early 2007, after experiments in the preceding four years on parts of the M25 and M6 showed a 10% improvement in emergency service response times,{{cite web | url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm091021/text/91021w0002.htm#09102131001754 | author = Hansard | title = 21 Oct 2009 : Column 1446W | access-date = 4 November 2009}} a programme to erect driver location signs at {{convert|500|m|yd|adj=on|sigfig=2}} intervals on many motorways was commenced in England.{{cite web | url = http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/ians/pdfs/ian93r1.pdf | author = Highway Agency | date = December 2010 | title = Interim Advice Note 93/10 (Revision 1) – Driver Location Signs Interim Performance Specification | access-date = 16 December 2010 | archive-date = 23 December 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101223202300/http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/ians/pdfs/ian93r1.pdf | url-status = dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/knowledge/17088.aspx |author=Highway Agency |title=Driver Location Signs (Driver Location Signs) |access-date=7 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603222316/http://highways.gov.uk/knowledge/17088.aspx |archive-date= 3 June 2009 }} The need for more visible roadside location information was shown in 2007, in an incident on a motorway before the driver location signs had been erected. The Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service reported that after a serious collision on the M5, their control centre was inundated with mobile phone calls from drivers. Callers gave the operators locations stretching over {{convert|40|mi|km}} of road. As a result, four emergency service centres were mobilised instead of just one.{{cite web|url=http://www.dsfire.gov.uk/Newsdesk/ViewPressRelease.asp?ReleaseID=56 |title=Motorway Markers |date=31 August 2007 |publisher=Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk |access-date=12 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091203034513/http://www.dsfire.gov.uk/Newsdesk/ViewPressRelease.asp?ReleaseID=56 |archive-date= 3 December 2009 }}

Research on trial sections of motorways showed that emergency service organisations responded 10% more rapidly when a motorway had driver location signs than when it did not. Driver locations signs are more visible than the small distance marker posts, enabling motorists to know their location more accurately and emergency services to reach incidents more quickly. The analysis of an exercise run by the Highways Agency (Exercise Hermes) in which a serious traffic accident was simulated reported that call handlers in control rooms should request marker post or location sign locations when taking calls from members of the public.{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/26373.aspx |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110606114957/http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/26373.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-06-06 |title=Exercise Hermes |date=January 2010 |publisher=Highways Agency |access-date=30 March 2010 }}

Driver location signs have three pieces of information:

• The road identifier
• The carriageway identifier
• The location

The location is identical to the location given on marker posts. The most commonly used carriageway identifiers are the letters "A", "B", "J", "K", "L" and "M".{{cite web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/16043.aspx |author=Highway Agency |title=Identification of Incident Locations |access-date=11 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317184907/http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/16043.aspx |archive-date=17 March 2010 }} The letter "A" ("Away from London") normally (but not always)For example the M32 denotes carriageways leaving London (or clockwise in the case of the M25 & M60) and "B" ("Back to London") is used for carriageways going to London (anticlockwise on the M25 & M60). Location numbers increase in the direction of travel of the "A" carriageway, and decrease in the direction of travel of the "B" carriageway. The letters "J", "K", "L" and "M" denote junction slip roads. This is illustrated below.

File:DLS JunctionCarriagewayIds.png

Letters "C" and "D" have been allocated for service roads adjacent to the "A" and "B" carriageways. The regulations require that each driver location sign is unique within the United Kingdom.

If a road is rerouted, then it is highly likely that there will be some changes in the end-to-end length of the road concerned which could affect the values on driver location signs. The publicly available Highways Agency documentation does not cover this possibility, but it will be noticed that the four carriageway identifiers "E", "F", "G" and "H" have not been allocated.

Section 64 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 authorises the Secretary of State for Transport to regulate the design of road signs in England, Scotland and Wales. The Secretary of State used this provision to authorise the design of driver location signs and to use the same location information on them as on the distance marker posts.

In 2016, driver location signs were added to Schedule 11 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (TSRGD). Diagram 2718 shows a driver location sign with the description, "Route number and location reference".{{cite web

|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/11/part/2/made

|title=Statutory Instrument 2016 No. 362; The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016

|date=16 March 2016

|access-date=10 March 2024

}}

In a road users satisfaction survey conducted during the second quarter of 2012 in the M25 area, respondents were shown a picture of a driver location sign and asked whether they had seen similar signs and also what they thought the signs were for. Some 59% of respondents had seen such a sign, but 76% of drivers did not know what the signs were for.{{cite web |url = http://assets.highways.gov.uk/about-us/satisfaction-surveys-nruss-aruss/2012%20-%2008%20Area%205%20February%20-%20July%202012%20Report.pdf |publisher = Highways Agency |title = Area 5 Road Users' Satisfaction Survey February to July 2012 |page = 14 |access-date = 3 March 2013 |archive-date = 8 July 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150708170113/http://assets.highways.gov.uk/about-us/satisfaction-surveys-nruss-aruss/2012%20-%2008%20Area%205%20February%20-%20July%202012%20Report.pdf |url-status = dead }}

In 2021, Rule 277 of the Highway Code{{cite web |url = https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/breakdowns-and-incidents-274-to-287 |publisher = Highways Agency |title = The Highway Code: Breakdowns and incidents |access-date = 4 March 2024 }} was updated with images to ensure that readers understand how to use distance marker posts and driver location signs to identify and communicate their location to emergency services.{{cite web |url = https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/updates |publisher = Highways Agency |title = Updates: The Highway Code |access-date = 4 March 2024 }}

• Milestone
• Highway location marker

{{Reflist}}

{{traffic signs}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Driver Location Signs}}

Category:2003 introductions

Category:Milestones

Category:Road infrastructure in the United Kingdom