Signage improvements: Pedestrian Zones, Home Zones, and Quiet Lanes

In this article, we look at more ways of reducing road sign clutter, in this case eliminating unnecessary wording on signs for pedestrian zones, home zones, and quiet lanes.

Pedestrian Zones

Pedestrian Zone signs simply just need a pedestrian sign, and the word "ZONE". If cycles are permitted then one just needs a pedestrian and cycle sign and the word "ZONE". And if there is supplementary information, then that can appear in a supplementary plate, in symbolic form, and with time in 24 hour format of course. And simplifying the rules (e.g. no waiting at any time at any pedestrian zone) reduces the amount of information needed on the signs.

By doing these, the Pedestrian Zone signs really look cleaner, often smaller, more concise and much less cluttered after conversion. Examples of the pedestrian zone signs before conversion (left in the pictures) and after conversion (right in the pictures) shown below:

Pedestrian Zone before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).
Note how the sign after conversion is clearer.

Pedestrian Zone with cycles permitted,
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

End of Pedestrian Zone,
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

End of Pedestrian Zone (with cycles permitted),
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

Time-limited Pedestrian Zone with loading permitted,
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

Pedestrian Zone with loading by goods vehicles permitted,
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

Pedestrian Zone with cycles and loading permitted,
before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

Pedestrian Zone with cycles and loading
by goods vehicles permitted, before conversion (left) and after conversion (right).

Replacement of wordy Pedestrian Zone repeater with a symbolic equivalent,
an alternative is to not have repeaters within a Pedestrian Zone.

Home Zones

You might be familiar with Home Zones (as they are called in the UK), but in these type of roads the road is shared with pedestrians (and may or may not use shared surfaces - but the idea is for there to be shared surfaces and no kerbs), and traffic must travel really slowly, no more than around 20 km/h. As well as in the UK, Home Zones are also found in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

On UK Home zone signs, the supplementary plate is not necessary because the sign already means "Home Zone", and there should already be a street sign as well. The "End of Home Zone" already means that we are at the end of the Home Zone, so the supplementary plate saying "Home Zone ENDS" is superfluous. Another point which is not a problem, but worth noting is that the sign in the UK is very slightly different from Home Zone signs used elsewhere, ideally the signs should be the same everywhere in and have the same meaning.

Examples are shown below:

Removal of an unnecessary supplementary plate on the Home Zone sign. The sign on the right
matches more closely what is used elsewhere (especially in Europe).

Removal of an unnecessary supplementary plate on the End of Home Zone sign. The sign on the
right matches more closely what is used elsewhere (especially in Europe).

Quiet Lane

A Quiet Lane is a lane in rural areas shared between motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders, and reduced speeds. I believe Quiet Lanes should have a standard speed limit (something like 30 km/h or less), that way there is no need for any extra signs (specifically speed limit signs) which would reduce the clutter in the countryside. In addition on Quiet Lane and End of Quiet Lane signs, the words are superfluous. If really required the name of the road could appear in the supplementary plate, but even that is superfluous if a street sign exists.

Examples are shown below:

Removal of an unnecessary supplementary plate on the Quiet Lane sign.

Removal of an unnecessary supplementary plate on the End of Quiet Lane sign.

Note: Copyrights have been acknowledged in the images themselves, the original source of the copyrighted artwork (all covered by a copyright waiver) is the Know Your Traffic Signs booklet. All other images were created by the author and are licensed under CC-BY-SA.