Effectiveness road markings and signs in traffic management

Abstract

Road markings and signs, which are representatives of traffic rules and regulation, play important roles in the traffic management system. However, the effectiveness of road markings and signs used in Singapore is never assessed by any studies or pieces of research. Moreover, traffic authority is not sure about how are the road users' responses to erected road markings and signs. Therefore, with no prior research done, this project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 common road markings, namely double white line and yellow box, as well as 4 common road signs, namely "No U-turn", "Pedestrian use overpass", "Trailer restriction" and "No waiting" signs. Totally 10 locations are selected as objective location of this research. Researchers carry out site observations at those locations and count the number of road users who disobey the selected road marking/sign. The observing time covers one peak hour and one off-peak hour in weekday. The effectiveness of road marking/sign is determined using the disobey rate. Several locations have upcoming changing or expansion of current traffic planning. Comparative trials, or say comparative observations, are carried out for those locations. Results showed that the disobey rates are low. And the road markings and signs have a high effectiveness except "Pedestrian use overpass" and "No waiting" sign. To conclude, the selective road markings and signs are effective and helpful in managing the traffic condition. The disobedience behaviors against them are in a low and reasonable range. And the disobey rates in peak hour are relatively higher than that in the off-peak hour. Furthermore, further studies on the relationship between disobey rate and time could be done as this project has revealed the increase of disobedience from off-peak hour to peak hour.