Knowing the meaning of all traffic signs is an essential requirement to obtain a driver’s license. The applicants to get the permit know it well by the hours they dedicate to studying the content of the vertical indications to pass the theoretical exam.
Although it is true that some signs are very easy to recognize, such as give way or stop signs, there are others that are not so easy due to the fact that it is not common for us to find them on the roads. It may also happen that we don’t know them because they are new, as is the case with the signs that will come into force throughout 2023.
This situation is not alien to drivers with years of experience behind the wheel. It is likely that some sign will catch them off guard and they do not know how to interpret its meaning given the danger that this confusion can entail for road safety. That is why it is advisable to take a look from time to time to the General Traffic Regulations to review the traffic signs and remember their meaning.
The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), however, actively collaborates with drivers in this regard. Through its social networks, it regularly publishes images of traffic signs so that users can choose the correct answer among three options.
The latest survey carried out by Traffic consists of interpreting the meaning of a circular signal with a red border around it that contains a black horizontal line.
The options proposed by the DGT are the following:
A. is at a dead end and must backtrack.
B. it is forbidden to pass without stopping.
C. approaches a ground elevation.
The responses of the people who have answered the DGT’s question show the general ignorance that the issue arouses. However, if we take into account that a sign surrounded by a red circle and a white background indicates a prohibition, it gives us many clues about the correct answer.
Indeed, it is about option B. When seeing a sign like this, the driver must stop and may not resume his journey until he has complied with the prescription established by the sign. Perhaps now we remember having seen this indication at tolls, customs or police controls. In other words, in places where it is mandatory to stop, either due to the presence of traffic agents or due to the fact that we are faced with mechanical means, such as toll barriers.
This traffic restriction sign is identified in the General Traffic Regulations as R-200. The other signs of the same family are R-201 (mass limitation), R-202 (mass limitation per axle), R-203 (length limitation), R-204 (width limitation) and R-205 (height limitation).
In addition, there are other prohibition signs. The most common of all is the one with a prohibited direction (R-101) that we can find in many streets and that is very easy to identify due to the profusion of red. This color occupies the entire plate, with the exception of a white stripe that crosses it in the middle.
Traffic signals indicate priorities, prohibitions, obligations and restrictions on the road. They are characterized by being circular, except those of priority, which have special shapes given their importance over the rest. In order to obtain a driving license and follow the rules of the road behind the wheel, it is essential to know their meaning, since they send messages to drivers and other road users.
Even so, there are a series of signs that continue to raise doubts, especially among applicants for the card. This is stated in a report published by Pons Seguridad Vial on the ten most failed questions in the preparation tests to obtain the class B permit, as we published in Moveo at the time.
