Useful links

The standards, manuals and datasets we work from day to day on signs, markings and road infrastructure in the UK.

Regulations and standards

• Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 SI 2016/362, the Regulations and the General Directions in one instrument
• Standards for Highways official home of the DMRB and the MCHW, with a country selector for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Design Manual for Roads and Bridges arranged by discipline: scheme governance, road layout, pavement, structures, drainage, geotechnics, technology and lighting
• Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works the Specification for Highway Works, Instructions for Specifiers and the Method of Measurement
• National Highways, design standards what changed in the restructured DMRB, and the GG 000 index of current documents

Documents on Standards for Highways are reached by code, so search the site for the one you need: GG 101 for how the manual applies, CD 109 for link design, CD 116 for roundabouts, CD 123 for at-grade junctions, CD 127 for cross-sections, CD 377 for road restraint systems.

Traffic Signs Manual

All ten documents, straight from the DfT. Official page for the set.

• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Primary route destinations in England by region
• Chapter 3 Regulatory signs
• Chapter 4 Warning signs
• Chapter 5 Road markings
• Chapter 6 Traffic control
• Chapter 7 The design of traffic signs
• Chapter 8, part 1 Road works and temporary situations, design
• Chapter 8, part 2 Road works and temporary situations, operations
• Chapter 8, part 3 Road works and temporary situations

Design guidance

• LTN 1/20, Cycle infrastructure design the DfT design standard for cycle schemes
• Manual for Streets 2007, the residential street design guide
• Manual for Streets 2 CIHT, carries the principles beyond residential streets
• Inclusive mobility best practice on access to pedestrian and transport infrastructure
• Know your traffic signs the whole sign set in one short document, handy as an index
• Well-managed Highway Infrastructure the UK Roads Leadership Group code of practice for highway authorities
• Traffic sign images over 600 signs as EPS vectors and JPG, with the official colour palette in Pantone, CMYK and RGB

London and the devolved administrations

• TfL Streets Toolkit Streetscape Guidance, London Cycling Design Standards, accessible bus stop design and kerbside loading
• Transport Scotland
• Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland DfI Roads

Data and maps

• OS Data Hub, open data free Ordnance Survey downloads, sign-up required
• OS Open Roads the road network of Great Britain in Shapefile, GeoPackage, GML and vector tiles
• OS Terrain 50 terrain model at 50 m spacing with 10 m contours, free to use, enough to set a scheme in its landscape
• Defra Data Services Platform Environment Agency LIDAR surveys and composite terrain and surface models for England
• data.gov.uk the public data catalogue, with a transport collection
• WebTRIS National Highways traffic counts by site and date range
• Reported road casualties, Great Britain the DfT collection built on STATS19, with the open data tables

Institutions

• CIHT Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation
• RSMA Road Safety Markings Association, skills and standards for the road marking industry
• buildingSMART developer of IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), the open vendor-neutral specification for BIM data exchange
• iRAP International Road Assessment Programme

Learning resources

• CapCad manual every command
• Autodesk University videos
• Complete AutoCAD course, freeCodeCamp on YouTube