Simplified guideline for road markings and placement of road signs

Abstract

Ministry of Prots & Highways and the Road Development Authority (RDA) have been focusing attention to introduce a Revised manual for Traffic Signs and Markings which is in conformity with the stipulations given in the Vienna Convention. As a result, Revised Regulations are in the threshold of publishing as an Act passed in the Parliament in near future. This will replace the Regulations which are currently in use. A Manual on Traffic Control Devices has already been prepared for the use after the Revised Act come into effect. This manual itself says that the traffic sign and road marking numbering system developed for this manual is entirely different to the numbering system which is currently in practice. Therefore, it can be expected that some difficulties may arise when this new system is implemented. In some selected newly rehabilitated roads, new Traffic control signs and markings have been used by RDA on trial basis. Current practice for marking road centerlines and placing of danger warning signs is based on the Regulations of Gazette Notification No.444/18 published on 13th March 1987. No simplified guideline has been developed so far to use with these regulations. As a result, marked centerlines and fixed warning signs in roads show remarkable deficiencies in practice. When examining different roads, it is clear that methods practiced are highly subjective. Changing marked centerlines on roads time to time to do trials can be commonly seen. The paper present an attempt to prepare simplified guidelines to mark road centerlines and placing of danger warning signs based on the proposed revised Act which is in the threshold of publishing. “ The Manual on Traffic Control Devices” would fill the gap between the proposed revised Act and the knowledge of practitioners to some extent. But, when examining the roads used for try out the new method, it is clear that still there are some practical deficiencies. The reason may be the fact that the manual discussed only the individual situations. In combined situation this manual does not give sufficient guidance. As examples, the manual discuss about single horizontal curve and single vertical curve individually. But it does not give any guidance on reverse curves and combination of horizontal and vertical curves. This paper address this type of complex situations in depth and proposes to have a simplified methods to practice. This is done by carefully studying existing conflicts and shortcomings in the current practice and in the newly proposed method and by proposing ways and means to overcome these identified shortcomings using experience of current method