Traffic Regulations and Road Signs for Belgian C Licence Candidates
The hierarchy of rules
Belgian traffic law is built on a hierarchy: police officers and authorised officials override traffic lights, traffic lights override road signs, and road signs override general rules. Questions often test this order, so learn it as a chain rather than as separate facts. The default rule is right-hand priority at intersections without signs or markings, but this is the exception in practice: most junctions in built-up areas are regulated by signs or markings.
Speed and positioning for lorries
In built-up areas the general limit is 50 km/h, outside built-up areas 70 km/h on ordinary roads unless signed otherwise, and 120 km/h on motorways. Lorries over 7.5 tonnes are subject to lower limits on many secondary roads, and the general rule is that heavy goods vehicles must keep to the rightmost lane on motorways unless overtaking. Learn the sign shapes: triangles warn, circles give orders (red border = prohibition, blue = obligation), rectangles give information. A blue circular sign with a lorry indicates a mandatory route for goods vehicles.
Traps candidates fall into
A common trap is confusing a prohibition sign with an obligation sign, or reading a supplementary plate (for example a mass limit) as applying to all vehicles. Another is forgetting that a bus lane may be used by other vehicles only where explicitly permitted, and that parking on the hard shoulder of a motorway is forbidden except in emergencies.
Worked example
You approach an unmarked crossroads at the same time as a vehicle from your right, while a traffic light ahead is green. The light governs the next junction only; at the unmarked crossroads, the right-hand priority rule applies, so you must yield to the vehicle on your right even though you have a green light further ahead. Slow down and be prepared to stop.