Road signs, markings and signals
This domain tests whether you can read a moving Swiss road scene quickly: which sign family you are looking at, what a line on the tarmac permits, and which signal outranks which. Exam items often combine a sign, a supplementary plate and a marking in one picture-free scenario.
Sign families and shapes
- Danger signs: red-bordered triangle, placed ahead of the hazard - as a rule about 50 m in built-up areas and 150–250 m outside, so placement itself tells you where you are.
- Regulatory signs: red circle = prohibition, blue circle = mandatory (minimum speed, direction, cycle path).
- Priority signs: yellow diamond = main road; inverted red-bordered triangle = yield; octagon = STOP.
- Indication signs: blue and white rectangles (motorway, parking, place names).
- Supplementary plates qualify the sign above: vehicle type, distance, time, exceptions. Always read them.
Markings
White lines: Leitlinie (broken) may be crossed when safe; Sicherheitslinie (solid) must not be crossed, and a double solid line binds both directions. Yellow is used for pedestrian crossings, bus lanes and kerb markings - a yellow line along the kerb means no parking, a yellow cross means no stopping. Lane arrows tell you what the lane may do, not what you would like it to do.
Signals
Police hand signals override everything: arm raised = stop for all; arm pointing = you may proceed. Traffic lights run green, amber, red; a flashing green warns that the light is about to change - do not accelerate. Flashing amber alone means the lights are out of order, so signs and right-hand priority apply again.
Worked example
Wet night, a junction showing flashing amber, with a STOP line and sign for your direction and no other traffic. Reasoning: flashing amber cancels the light sequence, so the vertical sign governs - you must stop at the line and then give way. Flashing amber does not mean proceed slowly.
Traps
Confusing no parking with no stopping; ignoring the supplementary plate; crossing a solid line to make progress past a queue; reading flashing green as an invitation; obeying a police officer's wave without checking the traffic around you.