Mileage Signs
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There's been a lot of funny blue signs cropping up lately - about every 500 metres in both directions along many English motorways. They are part of a Highways Agency scheme, trialled at first on the M6 in Cheshire, then the M25's southern section and the M42 east of Birmingham. Now they're going national.
This has become easily the most common question that I get asked - "what do the strange blue signs mean?".
Big brother, little brother
The signs are actually just a larger version of the distance posts that already exist down the side of all motorways and most trunk routes. It's alarming how few motorists realise these little markers exist - and what useful information is on them. The term "mileage sign" is a little anachronistic, of course, given that they measure in kilometres.
Small marker post, and one of the new signs showing the same information.
The number on all these markers is a unique reference point which allows breakdown and emergency services to find you if you're involved in an accident. The small markers also show the direction to the nearest emergency telephone.
Solving the code
The text on the new signs provides all the information the emergency, highway or breakdown services would require to pinpoint a motorist's exact location.
- M6
The number of the road you're travelling on. - A, B or C
The carriageway - A is usually away from London, B is usually towards it (there are plenty of exceptions, and of course not all motorways go to London). Other letters are used for sliproads - J, K, L and M are frequently used for simple interchanges with four slips. - 306.0
The mileage (in kilometres) from the notional start point of the road. The signs appear every 500m, so numbers count up 300.0, 300.5, 301.0, 301.5 and so on. On the M6, the start point is actually the southern end of the M1, with marker posts continuing numbering from the M1 when the motorway branches off at Catthorpe.
But why?
Increasingly drivers have mobile phones with them. This means first that, when drivers break down, they aren't using the emergency phone system. Emergency phones have the reference for their location shown clearly, and can be traced, but someone on a mobile phone could be anywhere.
There is apparently an increasing number of incidents where motorists are either calling from the roadside, or calling about an incident they have just passed, while still moving, but are unable to pinpoint their location (or, in some circumstances, give any indication of where they are at all).
The new signs are designed to be very prominent and legible by passing vehicles - the Highways Agency suggests that a passenger could call if there is anything to report while the vehicle is moving. They also leave no question about what road the driver is on or which carriageway - both of which have been problematic questions before.
With thanks to Jon Body, Martin Vlietstra, Chris Cowdery and Matthew Sparks for information on this page.
