Traffic rules and road signs
This domain tests whether you can read a situation at a glance: which sign, signal or marking governs right now, and what exception a small supplementary plate creates. Swiss Theory B questions here are usually one-line scenarios ("who goes first?") or straight sign identification, so the rules have to be automatic rather than reconstructed.
How the rules stack
- Police officers directing traffic outrank everything else.
- Then traffic lights, then signs, then road markings, then the general rules of the road.
- A sign beats a general rule, a signal beats a sign, an officer beats a signal.
- Signs apply from the point where they stand and stay valid until an end-of-restriction sign, a new sign, or the end of the hazard they warn about.
The sign families
- Danger (Gefahr): red-bordered triangle, white ground - bends, junctions, pedestrian crossings, slippery road.
- Prohibition and restriction: red circle (no entry, speed limit, no overtaking).
- Mandatory: blue circle (keep right, minimum speed, cycle path).
- Priority: yellow diamond = priority road; inverted triangle = give way; octagon = stop.
- Information and direction: blue or green rectangles; motorway signs use white lettering on green or blue.
- Supplementary plates change everything: distance ("200 m"), time ("07–19 h"), vehicle type, or an exception such as "except bicycles".
Markings and light signals
White lines organise the carriageway: a broken line may be crossed, a solid safety line (Sicherheitslinie) may not. Yellow zebra stripes mark pedestrian crossings in Switzerland; a thick stop line means stop. At traffic lights, green means go if the way is clear, amber means stop unless you are too close to stop safely, and flashing amber at a crossing means give way to pedestrians.
Worked example
You are on a priority road (yellow diamond) approaching a crossroads. A car waits at a give-way line on your right, and a pedestrian stands at the yellow crossing just before the junction. The diamond settles the car: you keep priority. But priority never overrides a pedestrian crossing, so you slow and stop for the pedestrian first, then continue. If a "priority road ends" sign stood under the diamond, you would switch to right-before-left at the next junction.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing up the danger triangle with the give-way triangle (point down).
- Ignoring a supplementary plate that limits the sign to certain hours or vehicles.
- Reading a blue mandatory sign as a prohibition.
- Crossing a solid safety line to pass a cyclist instead of waiting.
- Driving on through amber because the car behind is close.