[member=1]cp8759[/member] Thank you for [url=https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-(councils-tfl-and-so-on)/penalty-charge-notice-bus-lane-violation/msg68151/#msg68151]your post[/url] with the TROs for Canal Street, Nottingham. I have been intrigued by a detail in the signage for this: the presence of "only" at the end of the plate "and wheelchair accessible taxis only". That "only" was required under TSRGD 1994 and TSRGD 2002 but was prohibited by TSRGD 2016. So what's going on in 2023 for such a plate to be installed?
The answer lies in [url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WIM6llj5yvgEHG9_ed85IBCMz63UFxmT/view]the TRO[/url] which you posted and in the [url=https://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-1975.pdf]special authorisation[/url] which Nottingham are using. Some investigation has led me to send this [url=https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/removal_or_alteration_of_special]FoI request[/url] to DfT, which sets out what's happened:
[quote]
Dear Department for Transport,
Please supply details of specially-authorised traffic signs for which the Department has issued notices of removal or alteration since the issue of TSRGD 2016.
I have in mind that under TSRGD 1994 and TSRGD 2002 the "Only" plate (diagram 953.2) was mandated beneath blue roundels to diagram 953. TSRGD 2016 eliminated diagram 953.2 and prohibited its being placed at new installations (including routine replacement of old signs).
Before 2016, DfT had issued special authorisations for plates ending with the word "only" for use beneath diagram 953. TSRGD 2016 added to the standard plates for use below diagram 953 legend no. 17 "and authorised vehicles".
I would have expected DfT to advise holders of such special authorisations that they were not to be used for new signs. It may, of course, be that, as the authorisations refer to their accompanying signs which were being placed under the 2002 Regulations, the Department considered such advice superfluous.
I draw to your attention Plate A, "and wheelchair accessible taxi only" in https://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/c.... This authorisation was issued in 2011, but Nottingham City Council used it on Canal Street, Nottingham in 2023. The TRO asserts that the signs are being placed under TSRGD 2002 (!)
The vehicles which are permitted in addition to those shown on diagram 953 include not only wheelchair-accessible taxis but security vehicles operated by uniformed security personnel. That being so, the standard TSRGD 2016 plate "and authorised vehicles" would appear more appropriate. It requires no special authorisation.
[/quote]
While I wait for DfT's reply, those receiving PCNs on Canal Street may wish to craft collateral challenges based on Nottingham's irregular use of signage and the assertion in their TRO that the signage is being placed under TSRGD 2002. Nottingham are meticulous in their TROs, so it seems unlikely that this was accidental.
Those proceeding westbound on Canal Street appear to me to have the best chances of challenging PCNs on the grounds of adequacy of signage. The map-type advance notice sign is already dodgy in being placed so far from the line of sight of motorists and being surrounded by other signs.
The Roundabout ... or is it?
Although it looks like a roundabout and has a circular path for vehicles and a circular centre of a different colour, it doesn't have the features which are required to make it legally a roundabout or a mini-roundabout:
dashed white lines across the carriageway which vehicles must cross to reach the circular path;
a centre
The large advance direction sign is not as prescribed in TSRGD 2016 and so is not a lawful traffic sign. It should not have been placed on the public highway. The error lies (inevitably) in the plate below the blue roundel.
The blue roundel on such a sign is [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/part/20/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12 Part 20[/url] Item 36 with the word "taxi" removed.
The optional symbol representing plates which are prescribed to appear beneath circular symbols (including the blue roundel) are listed in column (4) of Item 45 of [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/part/20/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12 Part 20[/url]. The only plate which is permitted for Item 36 is at paragraph 4. of this: "and authorised vehicles".
[url=https://assets.dft.gov.uk/trafficauths/case-1975.pdf]Nottingham's special authorisation[/url] for this plate only allows it to be placed beneath a blue roundel which is being installed under [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3113/contents/made]TSRGD 2002[/url]. That statutory instrument was superseded by [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/contents/made]TSRGD 2016[/url] and has now been revoked. Even if Nottingham had special permission for a plate under TSRGD 2016, that would not extend to its use on an advance direction sign unless the special permission included a separate symbol-form of the plate for use in TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12.
The erroneous plate adds to the verbiage on the sign, which is already excessive and diminishes its comprehensibility. Our modern traffic signs were designed by the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worboys_Committee]Worboys Committee[/url] in 1963. The third (of seven) principles was:
[quote]
(c) they should contain only essential information and their significance should be clear at a glance so that the driver’s attention is not distracted from the task of driving;
[/quote]
Signs such as the advance direction sign on Canal Street have become too complicated. Too much information has been crammed onto them. The result is that they cannot be read and assimilated from a moving vehicle.
At the top, there is a panel with the traffic camera symbol. Beside it is the legend "24 hr Bus Lane enforcement ahead". The traffic camera symbol appears nowhere in [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12[/url]. Normally, when a sign with a camera symbol appears next to an advance direction sign, it is a separate traffic sign, which is prescribed as diagram 878 ([url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/11/part/2/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 11 Part 2[/url] Item 63. The options for the legend are:
[list]
[li]Traffic signal cameras[/li]
[li]Speed cameras[/li]
[li]Average speed check[/li]
[li]Traffic signal and speed cameras[/li]
[li]Traffic enforcement cameras[/li]
[li]Police cameras[/li]
[li]Police enforcement cameras[/li]
[li]Bus lane cameras[/li]
[/list]
The most appropriate in this context would appear to be "Bus lane cameras".
Coming down to the main panel, Worboys' principle (c) suggests that the text identifying the names of the car parks is not essential. Omitting these would allow the location of the Lace Market car park to be shown schematically at the far right of the sign, below an extended horizontal black line.
The omission of the names of the car parks would also allow a warning triangle with a tram (in this context [url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/part/20/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12 Part 20[/url] Item 16)to be placed interrupting the horizontal black line. This warns that turning right leads to on-street trams before you reach the Lace Market car parks. Some motorists may be deterred by this and prefer to use the car park just beyond the roundabout ahead.
The words "City centre" seem justified on this sign. They could be placed above the horizontal black line to the right of the triangular warning of the tram.
The blue rectangles with a white "P" on this advance direction sign provide information. That is very different from the meaning of the blue roundel showing a bus and a cycle. That serves two purposes:
[list type=decimal]
[li]it conveys information to drivers of the vehicles shown that they are permitted[/li]
[li]it prohibits other vehicles[/li]
[/list]
Red on a traffic sign is immediately understood to convey prohibition or warning. Given the presence of the informatory blue rectangles with a white "P", at a casual glance a blue roundel can easily be misunderstood as similarly informatory. The difference between a circle and a rectangle (which is what distinguishes mandatory from informatory) is far less than that between blue and red.
The effect of the bus gate could be conveyed to the vast majority of road users by the use of a horizontal red bar ([url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/part/7/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12 Part 7[/url] Item 8 ) instead of the blue roundel with its plate.
Advance direction signs simplify: they do not show every detail. If they do, they lose comprehensibility. Taxi drivers in Nottingham already know that to use bus lanes they must be wheelchair-accessible. The people who will need to look at and understand the advance direction sign are those who rarely venture into the centre of Nottingham. Few of them will be the drivers of buses and wheelchair-accessible taxis who would miss out by not being told that they can actually get through what is, for the vast bulk of motorists, a dead end.
With the elimination of the space for the blue roundel and its plate, there is now space at the bottom of the advance direction sign to include a section which advises other traffic to do a U-turn at the roundabout. This is used at similar locations (e.g. [url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Parker+St,+Cambridge/@52.2043743,0.1267374,3a,53.1y,283.98h,87.61t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1smc2CkTNcox6vJXg8lfdxtg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D2.3935153544383496%26panoid%3Dmc2CkTNcox6vJXg8lfdxtg%26yaw%3D283.9816578271904!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x47d87096d65aecc3:0xcdcf24dbc4b0cbc9!8m2!3d52.2047083!4d0.1257601!16s%2Fg%2F1tgz9m2c?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTExMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D]Parker Street, Cambridge[/url]) and consists of the words "Other traffic" with an arrow indicating a U-turn at a roundabout ahead ([url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/12/part/5/made]TSRGD 2016 Schedule 12 Part 5[/url] Item 2).