Councillor Armand Toms has proposed a change to the law that would prevent motorists in Cornwall from becoming lost or trapped in rural areas.
Cllr Toms wants a new type of road sign to be included in the Highway Code. The sign would warn road users that satellite navigation systems are unsuitable for use in certain areas, especially where roads narrow unexpectedly.
He explained: “If you had a sign that said, ‘don’t use this route’, it would help. But the Highway Code doesn’t have that at the moment and we would like the government to take notice and put in some common sense and say, ‘switch your sat-nav off”.
Cllr Toms, of East Looe Council, added that the “quickest route is probably not always the safest route”.
In 2012 a survey carried out by Halfords revealed that 68 per cent of motorists in the UK use satellite navigation systems to plot daily routes such as travelling to work or driving to the supermarket. Mr Toms wants to ease reliance on the technology in rural areas because many drivers end up lost or stuck after following the least suitable route.
Here at The Sussex Sign Compnay, we wonder what a ‘no sat-nav’ sign might look like if the motion is successful.