History of British Traffic Signs

4: The Worboys Report

The Worboys committee delivered its report in 1963. The recommendations, most of which were implemented in the 1964 regulations, marked the biggest change yet in British traffic sign design.

The main changes were:

• Signing brought in line with European system, using symbols (without supplementary wording) to warn or order drivers:
• Warning signs now had a symbol contained within a red triangle;
  This means `road narrows ahead'
  
• Regulatory signs had a symbol within a red ring (prohibitory) / blue ring (mandatory);
  This means `no overtaking'
  
• New colour coding system:
• White on dark green for primary routes (with route numbers in yellow);
  
• Black on white (with black border) for non-primary routes;
  
• Black on white (with blue border) for local destinations (on both primary and non-primary routes);
  
• New fonts (as used in the pictures above) - the Transport Alphabet series, designed by Jock Kinnear. As with motorway signs, the letters were in lower case, with initial capitals where necessary.