Road Signs, Signals and Road Markings
Domain 1, Road Signs, Signals and Road Markings, tests whether a heavy-vehicle driver can read Cameroon’s French-style sign system quickly and apply the correct hierarchy. The exam asks you to identify sign families by shape and colour, interpret police and traffic-light signals, and explain lane, edge and prohibition markings before you commit a truck to a manoeuvre.
Core rules
- Hierarchy: a police officer’s signal overrides traffic lights, which override fixed signs, which override road markings. Temporary roadworks signs override permanent ones when they conflict.
- Danger signs are triangles with a red border; prohibition signs are red-bordered circles; obligation signs are blue circles; indication and direction signs are rectangles or squares. A red circle with a lorry silhouette bans goods vehicles; a red circle with a numeral and an axle symbol limits axle mass, not total mass.
- Traffic lights: red means stop at the stop line; amber means stop unless it is unsafe to do so; green permits movement only if the exit is clear. A flashing amber at a pedestrian crossing means give way to pedestrians.
- Markings: a continuous white line must not be crossed; a broken line may be crossed only when overtaking is safe and permitted; a stop line requires a complete stop; hatched areas and zebra crossings must be kept clear.
Worked example
A driver approaching a bridge sees a red-bordered circle showing a lorry and “12 t”, followed by a triangle showing a steep descent. The circle is a prohibition: vehicles above the posted mass limit may not proceed, and the triangle warns of a descent requiring a lower gear. The driver must check the vehicle’s actual gross mass and axle loads, not guess from the load ticket, and must not enter if the limit is exceeded. The descent sign calls for selecting a low gear before the bridge, not braking hard on it.
Traps
- Treating a no-entry sign as a no-through-road sign, or a give-way sign as a stop sign.
- Reading a weight-limit sign as payload rather than gross vehicle mass.
- Obeying a green light when the junction is blocked, then stopping across it.
- Missing temporary yellow roadworks markings that replace white ones.