There could soon be no excuse for performing an illegal U-turn with Brisbane City Council pushing to replace existing wordy signs with more visual signage.
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State government web-crash data showed crashes following dangerous U-turns led to more than three deaths a year.
The council’s infrastructure chairman Amanda Cooper said illegal U-turns were not only dangerous to the driver and other motorists but contributed to traffic congestion.
“Council is seeking permission from the state government to use new high-visibility warning signage to help more motorists understand where motorists are permitted to perform U-turns,” Cr Cooper said.
U-turn awareness signs across Brisbane are yellow with black lettering that reads “U-turns prohibited at all signals unless signed otherwise”.
A driver can be fined $100 and lose three demerit points for disobeying a U-turn sign in Queensland.
The council-proposed sign is yellow and includes two visual cues, a U-turn arrow with a red cross through it and traffic lights, as well as words in black that read “unless signed otherwise”.
A trial of these signs has been proposed at six locations in Brisbane including Logan Road in Greenslopes, Logan Road in Holland Park, Manly Road in Tingalpa, Beaudesert Road in Moorooka, Gowan Road in Stretton and Main Street in Kangaroo Point.
It was proposed that traffic surveys would be done before and after the installation of the signs to determine improvements in compliance, a review of any complaints, inquiries or feedback received during the trial and that all results and findings would be provided to the Department of Transport and Main Roads so it could assess the need to update other signs.
Cr Cooper said if the state government approved the trial and it was successful it would look to implement a wider roll-out of the signs.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads did not respond to questions.
