Traffic rules and road signs for the Danish category C test
This domain tests Færdselsloven as it applies to a lorry over 3,500 kg: general right of way, the Danish speed limits, the sign families and the truck-specific bans. Most items are scenario questions - a junction, a sign combination, a road type - and you must pick the single lawful action, not merely the sensible one.
Speed limits that apply to you
- Built-up area (tættere bebyggelse): 50 km/h. The limit begins at the town-name sign.
- Outside built-up areas: 80 km/h for cars, but only 70 km/h for a lorry over 3,500 kg on ordinary roads.
- Motorvej and motortrafikvej: 130 km/h for cars, 80 km/h for a lorry over 3,500 kg.
- A signed limit replaces the general limit, so a 60 sign means 60 for you too.
Right of way
Without signs or markings, the right-hand rule (højrevigepligt) decides. It does not apply when you leave a private road, a petrol station, a car park, a field track or a property: you then have unconditional duty to give way (ubetinget vigepligt), even though no sign is there. In a roundabout, vehicles already circulating have priority. At a STOP sign you must stop completely at the line before looking - rolling slowly past is a fail.
Signs
Danish signs are grouped A warning, B right of way, C prohibition, D mandatory, E information. For a lorry the C group matters most: overtaking bans for lorries, weight, length, width and height limits, and environmental zone signs. Yellow supplementary plates state who or what the ban applies to, so read them before deciding the sign does not concern you.
Worked example. You drive a 12 t lorry on a rural road marked with the ordinary 80 km/h sign and are asked the maximum permitted speed. The 80 plate is the general limit for cars up to 3,500 kg; your vehicle's own limit of 70 km/h still governs, so the answer is 70 km/h. If the road had instead been signed 60 km/h, the answer would be 60, because the lower signed limit always binds you.
Traps that cost marks
- Quoting 80 km/h for a lorry on a rural road, or 130 km/h on a motorvej.
- Assuming the right-hand rule protects you when you leave a shop car park or a fuel station.
- Forgetting that a 50 km/h zone applies to lorries as well, with no separate truck limit inside towns.
- Treating a yellow supplementary plate as irrelevant - it usually determines the answer.