Road Signs, Signals and Road Markings
This domain tests whether you can read the road ahead without hesitation. The Gambia uses the international shape-and-colour system, so the examiner expects you to identify a sign from its silhouette and colour before you read the symbol, and to obey it in the correct order of priority.
Shape and colour answer the question before the symbol
- Red-bordered circle: a prohibition (no entry, no overtaking, speed limit, no parking).
- Blue circle: a mandatory instruction (turn left, keep right of the bollard, minimum speed).
- Red triangle, point up: warning of a hazard ahead (children, livestock, bend, road narrows, hump, roundabout).
- Rectangle: information or direction (place names, hospital, one-way street, parking).
- Octagon: STOP. Inverted triangle: GIVE WAY. Both require you to be able to stop.
- An oblique slash through a symbol means the end of that restriction or instruction.
Signals and who outranks whom
Priority order runs: police officer or authorised person, then traffic lights, then signs, then road markings. Where two conflict, obey the higher one.
- Red: stop behind the stop line. Red and amber together: prepare, do not move. Green: proceed only if the way ahead is clear. Amber alone: stop unless you are so close that stopping would be unsafe.
- A police officer facing you with an arm raised, palm toward you, means stop - even on a green light.
Markings
A solid centre line must not be crossed or straddled. A broken centre line may be crossed to overtake only when it is clear and safe. Stop line at a STOP sign; give-way line at GIVE WAY. Zebra stripes give pedestrians priority. Yellow lines along the gutter mean no parking.
Worked example
You approach a junction on a green light. A police officer stands facing you, right arm raised, palm toward you. A driver behind sounds the horn. You stop. The officer's signal outranks the green light, the driver behind is at fault for not keeping a safe distance, and driving on would be an offence and an immediate fail.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading the symbol but ignoring the plate beneath it ("for 200 m", "7 t").
- Treating amber as a signal to accelerate.
- Confusing "no entry" (red circle with a white horizontal bar) with a speed-limit sign (red circle with a number).
- Missing temporary roadworks signs and manually operated signals.
- Assuming a green light means the junction is clear.