Location signs for stranded drivers

Date published: 22 June 2009

Drivers who break down on local motorways now have new location signs to help the Highways Agency and emergency services to pinpoint exactly where they are.

The signs tell road-users which motorway they are driving on, the direction they are travelling in and exactly where they are on the motorway.

The North-West was the first to get a small number of the signs on the M6 in a 2005 pilot scheme, and the full installation was launched in 2007. It was recently completed along the M60 ring road in Greater Manchester.

The large signs, with yellow lettering on blue background, include information especially important for people using mobile phones that do not automatically give location information, unlike the hard shoulder emergency telephones.

The signs include: the number of the motorway, the letter A or B to tell the Highways Agency or the emergency services in which direction the driver is travelling (or the letters J, K, L and M on slip roads), and a figure below the letter representing the distance in kilometres, usually from the start of the motorway.