KEEP RIGHT! What's the best road sign for it?

Social media often devolves into the realm of the truly vapid ("Hey, look at my ________ (baby, dog, food, selfies, politics, etc.), but it's also a tool for learning and constructive conversation if you use it for good rather than evil.  I'm a Twitter fan for planning/land use/housing/transportation ideas and found this post from a fellow transportation nerd intriguing.

The photo asks two questions:

1. What's the best road sign to use for the message "KEEP RIGHT"?
2. How well-trained are drivers in the United States?  If they're simply poorly-trained and subsequently poorly-skilled drivers, then perhaps the written/graphic content and retroflectivity of a traffic sign is a moot point?

Let's work through the first question.  

Having experienced UK, US, and Australian roadways as a driver and pedestrian, I much prefer UK and Australian roadways, as they are safer.  Why? Perhaps because it's because they have visually clear and simple signs and pavement markings. For example, in the UK, if you see a blue circle (images below) with an arrow pointing left (and where applicable, right), that means KEEP LEFT whether it's a fixed location on a pedestrian refuge island or part of temporary traffic control for road works.

The United States' Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD, I know, it's a mouthful) has four different sign options for KEEP RIGHT - why not just pick ONE standard?  Australia (always a fun blend of UK and USA influences) has a sign remarkably similar to the US's MUTCD R4-7 sign (see below), with one key difference: the arrow points DOWN, like the UK's sign.  These are both good wayfinding practices at which these countries excel.

UK signs for KEEP LEFT are usually placed at driver eye-level, which provides more immediacy in message conveyance, "Oi' mate, keep left!".  US signs are often posted on minimum 7' vertical clearance posts, which allow the message to be seen from further away, but given the business/distractions of urban streets and urban driving, is that message then forgotten by the driver once they're immediately upon (within 60', or 3 car-lengths) the KEEP RIGHT point?  The UK design strikes me as being more effective at providing messaging to drivers in urban environments than US designs. However, the issue is also likely due to the quality of drivers - onto question two!

Regarding question two (Is it the drivers, not the sign?), driver education and testing is much more rigorous in the UK than the US.  Want proof of that?  See the image below that shows the SIX steps you have to go through to get a driver's license in the UK.  Notice the step that includes "Theory and hazard perception test app" - here's a video with some highlights.

There are at least two key study guides for the test - Know Your Traffic Signs and The Official Highway Code.  See all those multimodal icons across the top of The Official Highway Code? They're teaching you to drive amidst all of them.

I bought the two guides shown below on a trip to Scotland in 2015, and they were available at a bookstore in Glasgow Central Station [train].  Yep, that's right, I didn't have to order them or go to a DMV office - these guides are published by a private publisher and readily available at $5 a piece!  They're literally best-sellers!

And I circled key messages on them: "Know Your Traffic Signs/The Highway Code - for life, not just for learners".  I recently moved back to North Carolina and was surprised (saddened) that I wasn't required to take a written/computerized driver's exam.  I had a license from Oregon (they require all new residents to take the driver exam, with emphasis on bicycle/pedestrian safety), so I got a "pass" onto North Carolina's roadways because I had a license from another state.

So, is it the safety of the signs or the drivers that would prevent this sign from being destroyed? The answer is probably "Both".  Still, I do believe that visually striking, yet simple traffic signs and pavement markings, coupled with well-trained drivers, can vastly improve roadway safety. 

Want a quick comparison of US vs. UK road safety?  In 2017, 40,100 people died on US roadways (12 per 100,000 people). That same year, the UK experienced 1,793 traffic deaths (3 per 100,000 people).  And of course, Sweden is the country to beat for World's Safest Roads, but the UK's not too far behind Sweden for Americans wanting an English-speaking case study country.

 Driving is a privilege, not a right, and we should treat it as such.