A traffic sign is an “element, sign or mark intended to warn or order traffic.” This is how the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Legal Spanish, from the Royal Spanish Academy, defines this important aspect of the road regulation system. In our country, the General Traffic Regulations include more than 400 traffic signs and road markings that, in theory, all drivers must know and respect to guarantee safety on the roads.
In addition to the signs included in the General Traffic Regulations, it is important to be attentive to other indications that we may encounter while driving. They are the signals that City Councils can generate exclusively to organize traffic in their cities, a power endorsed by the Constitutional Court last year after a previous ruling adopted by the Supreme Court.
For this reason, it is necessary for drivers to be familiar with both the standard signs included in national regulations and the specific signs of each municipality. These local signs may vary in their design and meaning depending on the particular needs of each City Council, but some of them are common in different locations.
In some cities, new road signs are being implemented that are painted on the asphalt. One of these signs consists of a square yellow road marking with a cross inside. The sign usually causes some confusion with drivers, since as a general rule no explanation has been provided about its meaning and its function in traffic regulation. And you don’t learn in driving schools either.
The meaning of this sign, which recalls on a small scale the grids of yellow marks painted on the intersection of two roads, is related to fire hydrants. It indicates the exact point under which the hydrants or fire hydrants are located so that, in case of emergency, fire teams can quickly locate them from the truck itself.
This is, without a doubt, a security measure of vital importance to optimize the response in emergency situations. In this way, firefighters can more efficiently access the water resources necessary to connect their hoses and fight fires more quickly. Firefighters also use these hydrants to fill their tankers.
The fact that City Councils can design their own traffic signs that are not included in the legislation is supported by the Constitutional Court. The highest court issued a ruling in this regard on an appeal for protection filed by the Associated European Motorists (AEA) drivers’ defense association against a ruling by the Supreme Court.
The case had its origin in 2014 when AEA filed an appeal against the Madrid City Council for modifying the Mobility Ordinance to authorize the signaling of parking spaces with colored road markings (green, dashed blue and orange) that do not exist in the Catalog. Traffic Regulations Signal Officer.
AEA already warned then about the danger posed to drivers by the possibility that City Councils could generate their own traffic signals. More so considering that in Spain there are more than 8,000 town halls.
