Sort My Sign: Don’t let a broken road sign ruin your Christmas  

16 December 2021

“I’m driving home for Christmas
Oh, I can’t wait to see those faces.” 

So sang Chris Rea in his festive hit, ‘Driving home for Christmas.’  

With two weeks to go before the big day, many will be doing the same. But what if he’d come across a broken road sign and had to take a longer way home? What if an overgrown tree had been obscuring a motorway junction? The song might have been a little less cheerful.  

With that in mind, the watchdog, Transport Focus, is ramping things up over the festive period. We want to get all broken and confusing road signs fixed and we need everyone using the major A-roads and motorways across England to help.  

We want National Highways to: 

• sort broken or confusing signs 
• provide better communication during delays and unexpected disruption 
• review the current standard of information on motorway and major A-roads. 

This includes electronic signs too. Clear information allows drivers to make good decisions with plenty of time, improving safety and reducing stress. 

Anthony Smith, Transport Focus chief executive, said: 

“Drivers often tell us how frustrating a broken or illegible sign can be to their journeys. 

“Over Christmas and into the new year, there will be many travelling to see friends and family. Now is the perfect time to report that sign that’s been bugging you. Every single sign we flag to National Highways helps to make the roads safer and easier for everyone else.” 

Things are already getting sorted.  

National Highways says it has already fixed three out of five cases reported and is working on the rest.  

In the meantime, we’ll keep striving to make sure information on the roads is made clearer and safer for every road user. 

Watch the video here. Got a report to make? Log it here.