Driver Location Signs

There's been a lot of funny blue signs cropping up lately - about every 500 metres in both directions along many English trunk roads. They are part of a Highways Agency scheme, trialled at first on the M6 in Cheshire, then the M25's southern section and the M42 east of Birmingham. Now they're going national.

For many years this was easily the most common question Roads.org.uk was asked: "what do the strange blue signs mean?".

Big brother, little brother

The signs are actually just a larger version of the marker posts that already exist down the side of all motorways and most trunk routes. It's surprising how few motorists realised these little markers existed until now — and what useful information is on them.

A marker post, and one of the new signs showing the same information
A marker post, and one of the new signs showing the same information

The markers are all numbered, and these digits form a unique reference that allows breakdown and emergency services to find you if you're stranded by the side of the road. The small markers also show the direction to the nearest emergency telephone.

How do they work?

An example of a Driver Location Sign

The text on the new signs provides all the information the emergency, highway or breakdown services would require to pinpoint a motorist's exact location.

  • M6
    The number of the road you're travelling on.
  • A, B or C
    The carriageway — A is usually the side on which junction numbers count up, B is usually where they count down. On motorways radiating from London, A is 'Away' and B is 'Back' again. Other letters are used for sliproads — J, K, L and M are frequently used for simple interchanges with four slips.
  • 306.0
    The mileage (in kilometres) from the notional start point of the road. The signs appear every 500m, so numbers count up 300.0, 300.5, 301.0, 301.5 and so on. There are some sections of motorways where something is in the way of signs and it is easier to post them at .3 and .8 than .0 and .5.

Why were they created?

Increasingly drivers have mobile phones with them. This means first that, when drivers break down, they aren't using the emergency phone system. Emergency phones have the reference for their location shown clearly, and can be traced, but someone on a mobile phone could be anywhere.

There is apparently an increasing number of incidents where motorists are either calling from the roadside, or calling about an incident they have just passed, while still moving, but are unable to pinpoint their location (or, in some circumstances, give any indication of where they are at all).

The new signs are designed to be very prominent and legible to passing vehicles; the Highways Agency suggests that a passenger could call if there is anything to report while the vehicle is moving. They also leave no question about what road the driver is on or which carriageway — both of which have been difficult to ascertain before now.

With thanks to Mark Hampson, Mark, Jon Body, Martin Vlietstra, Chris Cowdery and Matthew Sparks for information on this page.

What's new

A century of motorways

It's 100 years since the opening of the world's first motorway, the Autostrada from Milan to the Lakes.

Schrödinger’s speed limit

In 2022, Manchester City Council say they reduced the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. But it’s not clear if they did. It’s not even clear if they can.

Sorry, wrong number

Road numbering is a system with clear rules. What happens when the people responsible for numbering roads don't follow them?

Share this page

Have you seen...

The Heads of the Valleys

The A465 Heads of the Valleys Road is one of the most spectacular trunk roads in the UK, and building it required some of the most remarkable civil engineering. This is the story of how the road was built in the 1960s, and how it's being rebuilt today.

About this page

Published

Last updated