Transport User Voice March 2024 – Maintenance of signs

29 February 2024

Making progress with National Highways

Transport Focus works with National Highways to enhance the day-to-day maintenance of its roads, including the signs people rely on to make safe, stress-free journeys.

Four years ago, we launched Sort My Sign as a tool for road users to report sign defects they wanted fixed. Our message was simple: if a sign isn’t clear, it’s not safe.

Later, National Highways created its own way for road users to do this for any type of fault, using the Fix My Street platform many local authorities have. So, if you see something wrong with the infrastructure on a National Highways route you can report it here.

Using the evidence gathered from Sort My Sign, supplemented by our own observations, Transport Focus has been challenging National Highways to up its game in this area ever since. We want to see specific problems fixed, whether the signs are missing or damaged or drivers can’t see them because of vegetation.

We are just as interested in ensuring that National Highways corrects weaknesses in its processes that result in these issues in the first place. We have therefore been asking National Highways questions intended to help it achieve long-term improvements which benefit road users.

In January 2024 National Highways wrote to us acknowledging that it had more to do in a number of areas – setting out actions to be taken. Despite the challenges of limited budgets and rising costs, it is positive to see National Highways acknowledging our feedback and seeking to prioritise the experience of road users.

What happens next?

We’ll be making sure National Highways delivers on those actions and they result in tangible improvement on the ground for drivers. And we’re standing by to help where we can.

 

Back to newsletter