Information boards

About erecting information boards on major state highways and other state highways

yogendra borse

    If boards showing sufficient information about the roads have not been erected, it becomes difficult for many carriers to travel in the right direction at the important confluence points on the roads and inconvenient at night. In order to avoid such inconvenience to the transporters and tourists, clear information boards mentioning the important tourist places / cities at the end of the road should be placed at the starting point of the road near the important confluence points and at the end point.

    It is necessary to install notice boards and information boards on the roads so that the new traveler who is traveling on the roads of the state for the first time can reach the desired destination without delay and safely. 

    While putting up such notice boards and information boards it is necessary to keep in mind the points mentioned below.

a) Boards showing the information as mentioned above shall be erected at all important terminus places, taluka places and other important towns every 100 km.

b) The size of the said notice board shall generally be 180 cm. (standing) 120 cm. (Horizontal) should be. The size of the panel may vary depending on the location. 

c) The letters on this board are 8 cm., 15 cm. or 20 cm. Height as well

d) Preferably screen printing on retro reflective sheets.

e) The final position on this board and the distance thereto shall be indicated in the manner directed by the Indian Roads Congress I.R.C:67 (retro-reflective approach).

f) (two) such signboards indicating important terminus points before approaching important junctions and one km before approaching the beginning and end points of the road. should be erected on the left side of the road.

g) Attached is a drawing of the notice board is shown in above image.

h) Similar notice boards should also be erected on important major district roads in a phased manner according to the availability of funds from non-plan programs as per the above instructions.

1) The information on the notice board or information board should be fully legible to an ordinary motorist while driving at the intended speed.

2) As the average life expectancy increases due to the improvement in the standard of living of the people in the country, the average age of the average driver also increases. It is estimated that the average age of a vehicle driver in India (this includes all drivers of trucks, buses, private cars, etc.) A paper presented at a session of the Indian Road Congress states that after 13 years a person's vision is half as clear as an 18-year-old driver would see a signboard, a 31-year-old driver would see it half as clearly, and a 44-year-old would see it half as clearly. Although there is disagreement about the actual statistics, the point is worth noting.

३) Considering that notice boards, information boards are meant for general motorists, it can be seen that they are largely meant for truck drivers, bus drivers and utility vehicle drivers. As the educational level of such drivers is not very high, their reading speed is also much lower than a highly educated person. So the average motorist cannot read an information board as fast as a highly educated person can read it. It takes more time for him.

४) When PWD officers read information boards, etc. while on the road, they are not driving themselves but their drivers are driving and the officers can safely read the information boards etc. on the back seat without paying attention to the driving. But when the average motorist reads the notice board, he needs to pay close attention to the road, the driving as well, and hence the occasional momentary distraction. He can read as much as he can on the notice board as far as his eyes go. A public works department official knows what information is on the next notice board. So they are easy to read. But a new driver does not have such knowledge.

Considering all the above factors, the size of the notice board to be placed on the road, the size of the letters and the length of the information on it should be decided as well as its location.

If the concept speed of the road is 'x' km per hour and if the size of the letters of the text on the information board is chosen such that it is possible for a motorist to read the letter from a distance of 'y' meters, then the time taken to cover the distance 'y' at a speed of 'x' is used to read the text on the information board. Otherwise the text on the notice board will be partially read and by then the vehicle will have moved on. So, in such a situation, two possible solutions are to increase the size of the letters or to divide the text on more than one information board.