U.K. Road Signs -- The Easy Way to Understand Them

There are a lot of signs on UK roads these days, well not literally of course, that would be stupid; generally signs are to be found at the side of the road or on odd occasions even above the carriageway.

To the average everyday motorist some of these signs are an absolute mystery. Of course everyone understands those signs which could cost money if not understood, speed limits and give ways and the like. However take the average motorists outside of their comfort zone, and anything more than the basics can begin to look like quantum physics.

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New signs are designed and used on a regular basis and motorists are responsible for keeping up to date with signs, but the reality of the situation is that people have far better things to do with their time than watching for announcements of new signs.

As with most things there is a common sense approach to road signs, and so long as the people who design the signs use this common sense approach there is no need to stress about keeping up to date.

Firstly and most importantly, there are three basic shapes of road signs, with only two exceptions to the rule. With a clear understanding of what the shape implies, the signs become much more user friendly. The three shapes are:

Circular Signs – give orders.

Triangular Signs – give warnings.

Rectangular Signs – give information.

Circular Signs.

Just as Mums have two basic orders for children, “you'd better tidy your bedroom” being an example of one, and “you'd better not poke you little sister in the eye with that kebab skewer” being an example of the other, the powers that be have the same two types of order, “you must” and “you must not”.

Thankfully those Johnny's up at sign writing HQ have come up with an ingenious way of helping us to get a grip of differentiating between the two. They made them different colours!

The circular signs with the red borders mean 'must not' while the circular signs with a blue background mean 'must'. Simple really, if you see a circular sign with a blue background and an arrow pointing to the left, you must go left.

There are a few signs that do still require a bit of memory, such as 'no stopping'. This particular sign is awkward because there isn't an obvious logical connection between what you see and what it wants to tell you, however with an understanding of the implication behind the shape and the colour, the memory part is not so daunting as it otherwise would be.

Triangular Signs.

Triangular signs give warnings. The thing about a warning is that it is useless unless the thing that it warns about is ahead; no use warning of something right where that something is, and no use warning someone of something when that something has been and gone. No two ways about it, if a warning is to be given it must warn of something ahead.

So whatever you see on the sign within the triangle, say what it is then follow it with the word 'ahead'. Pedestrian crossing ...ahead, tunnel … ahead, elderly people crossing … ahead. With the vast majority of warning signs the little pictures come quite close to being foolproof in most cases, it's like that old TV show Catchphrase, just “say what you see”.

Rectangular Signs.

There's not really a great deal to say about these particular signs, they simply relay information that the motorist may need to know. So for instance, road layout signs will always be rectangular, bus lane information, one way street signs and parking information, that sort of stuff.

There is one everyday situation which clearly illustrates why the difference between the shapes is so fundamentally important. Where there are bollards and a raised kerb half way across a road as a traffic calming measure, and signs either side of the bollards designating priority

The side that has to give way has a circular sign meaning it's an order, it means that you must not take priority over an oncoming vehicle. The other side has a rectangular sign, it informs the motorist that they have priority, but it doesn't say they must take priority over a oncoming lunatic.

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Finally, those two exceptions to the '3 shape rule' are the stop sign and the give way sign, it's only because these two signs are so important that they require a clear and distinct difference from all other signs, in case the snow covers the sign in freezing conditions.

That really is it, stick to the basics and it becomes easy. But make sure the basics are fully understood.