Worboys Committee

The committee went on to completely revise road signs in Britain, with an emphasis on symbols alone, adopting standard colour and shape practices used in mainland Europe and a new typeface.

Two articles were published in 1961 by graphic designer Herbert Spencer, illustrating the shortcomings of non-motorway British road signs.

It adopted standard colour and shape practices used in mainland Europe and used a new typeface that had already been used on the motorway signs, called Transport.

(a) roadside signs are too small to be readily recognisable as such and to be easily read by drivers travelling at the normal speed of traffic; (b) they do not have a simple, integrated appearance; (c) the more important signs are not readily distinguishable from the less important at long range; (d) they are often not effective at night; (e) they are different from those used on the continent of Europe and only those who can read English can fully understand them; (f) they are often mounted too high, particularly in rural areas; (g) they are often badly sited in relation to junctions; and

[b][6] The report found existing road signs to be completely obsolete in view of increasing numbers of motor vehicles and their increasing speeds, and made over a dozen key recommendations:[5] The report suggested approximately 136 signs.

This review could only recommend the introduction of white-on-brown tourist signing and a few other minor changes, later known as the Guildford Rules.