Tonal contrast on street furniture: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you advise the Transport Scotland current policy in regards to highlighting the presence of lamp posts and other street furniture for the benefit of those with impaired vision. For grey painted, galvanised or stainless-steel, bands of black tape have been the norm however it is noted the A82 towards Glasgow has had all the black banding replaced by orange. Please advise whether black and orange will continue to be used as contrast banding (against grey) on Scottish trunk roads or is it a case of all existing black tape being eventually replaced with an orange equivalent throughout the network.

Response

The design guidance document that is applicable on the Scottish trunk road and motorway network for tonal contrast on street furniture is the ‘Roads for All: Good Practice Guide for Roads’. I have provided a link to this document which is available on our website.

Report Template v2.4 (transport.gov.scot) 

The guidance within on street furniture indicates “… it is essential to ensure that the colour of street furniture contrasts with its surroundings. Colours which appear to be different from one another in colour (chroma) can be very similar tonally (e.g. green and brown) and therefore do not give sufficient contrast. Contrast is the visual perception of one element when viewed against another and is indicated by the difference in light reflectance between two surfaces. It is generally recognised that 30 points of difference in light reflectance between surfaces should give adequate contrast to be noticeable to a large proportion of partially sighted people, this can be achieved, as a minimum, using 150 millimetre deep colour bands which contrast in tone with the colour of the furniture.

The guidance does not therefore specify one particular colour which is to be used to achieve tonal contrast, as this will vary depending on the item’s surroundings and the specifics of the item itself.

Transport Scotland, through their Operating Companies, Amey and BEAR Scotland are responsible for the management and maintenance of the Trunk Road Network.

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