Speed Limits, Following Distance, Stopping and Parking
What this domain covers
This domain combines numeric limits, safe following distance and the stopping and parking prohibitions that exam questions often place at the same location.
Speed limits
- Built-up areas: 60 km/h.
- Outside built-up areas: 90 km/h.
- Motorways (sign 5.1): 110 km/h.
- Lower limits apply where signs, road conditions or towing require them; slow for bends, ice, fog and crossings.
Following distance
There is no single legal metre figure; the rule is a distance that lets you stop without hitting the vehicle ahead if it brakes suddenly. The two-second rule is the practical guide, doubled on wet or icy roads.
Stopping and parking
- No stopping on pedestrian crossings, railway tracks, intersections, bridges, tunnels, or where you would force others to cross a solid line.
- No stopping within 5 m before a pedestrian crossing.
- No parking within 15 m of bus stops and within 50 m of railway crossings.
- On the left side of a two-way road, stopping is allowed only in built-up areas where it does not conflict with traffic.
Worked example
A driver stops 3 m before a zebra crossing to check a map. This is a violation: stopping within 5 m before the crossing is prohibited, regardless of whether pedestrians are present.
Traps
- Treating no parking as no stopping; picking up a passenger may be allowed where parking is not.
- Ignoring a lower limit on a temporary yellow sign.
- Assuming the town limit applies on a motorway slip road marked otherwise.