The role of road safety signs in our lives

 

Road safety signs are one of the regular sights of our day to day lives. Whether it’s a humble neighbourhood street or a traffic-packed highway line, you see different kinds of road safety signs to guide people on roads and drivers right.

Unlike the postal or billboard signs, road safety signs serve as a safety guide for road users and drivers. Represented as a sign of traffic welfare, road safety signs often contain certain safety instructions or rules that have to be followed on the road for people’s traffic welfare on roads. Taking these simple yet critical signals lightly can often risk the welfare of road users both pedestrians and drivers.

 Most of the road safety signs are depicted via simple illustrations, icons or symbols, as pictures let people understand and interpret instruction better than words, considering the multicultural system and variety of different languages.

As a responsible citizen it is critical to be aware of the road safety signs and their meaning, whether you are driving, walking or on road construction work to reduce the risk of accidents or other dangerous traffic situations.

To enlighten you more on the role of road safety signs and their importance in our daily lives, here are some of the major advantages of road safety signs.

#1. Well-ordered traffic movements.

The obvious and major advantage of road safety is that it encourages a well-orderly movement of overall traffic. With the right traffic signal signs, drivers understand much better and sync well with the road situation knowing what and how of each traffic situation. Like certain signs like stop and roundabout or U-turn, signs give a better interpretation of the way they are taking and how they should be moving.

Though there are police monitoring at almost all major traffic points, they can’t everywhere to guide pedestrians and drive through the road. That’s why it’s crucial to have road safety signs to communicate certain guidelines to people, to ensure and execute orderly traffic movement and overall welfare of people on road.

#2. Let pedestrians cross the roads safely.

Roads are not just alone for driving, there are various elements in a road system like footpath where people walk by sides of roads and crosswalks where people cross across between two roads to reach their destinations. To ensure pedestrian welfare on these paths, there are several road safety signs to guide people who walk on roads right and ensure their safety.

Example: School zone signs are placed in areas where there are schools or in areas where young kids often run around. At some places, you may see some warning signs as a reminder like on busy highways -30km/h speed to avoid any unexpected road accidents. This is also the same as the rural areas with less drive space or in areas with frequent pedestrians.  Similarly, another common road sign you might notice would be the black and white lines across certain roads which are known as zebra crossings or crosswalk. These safety signages lets drivers know that there are pedestrians ahead and lets them give the walking people time to cross.

 

 

#3. Reminds, warns and indicates drivers of the changing road situation.

Due to its constant exposure to natural forces, driving and other harsh conditions, roads often require repairs and maintenance. Some of these can happen at the least expected time. 

To ensure driver’s safety there are certain signs like work in progress, proceed with caution, work in progress, potholes ahead, etc., to guide the road users right while driving and allow them to handle the situation better safely.

#4. Protects road construction workers.

Like said before, roads are prone to frequent repairs and maintenance works. Other road users especially the drivers needn’t necessarily know that people are working on road repairs and restoration. Road workers often work closely with moving vehicles without causing much trouble to the public. To ensure the safety of people who work for the safety of the public, road signs are simple means of indication that instructs them to slow down and let them know people are working on roads, protecting their safety.

To wrap up.

Road safety signs are an integral part of our daily lives. It is critical for the safe passage of people on roads. No matter what role you are into on roads –driver, pedestrian, worker, take care to follow the road safety rules strictly to ensure your and others safety.

 If you are planning on installing a road safety sign for your business or private purpose, make sure to invest in a company that is adhered to international and  Australian quality standards.