Traffic Rules and Road Signs
This section covers the general traffic rules of Mongolia and the sign families you must decode in the theory exam. Mongolia drives on the right and uses a sign system built on the Vienna/GOST model, so shape and colour alone usually tell you what is required before you read the symbol.
Read the shape first
- Red-bordered triangle - warning. Adjust speed and scan for the hazard named inside.
- Red-ringed circle - prohibition: no entry, no overtaking, speed limit, weight limit.
- Blue circle - mandatory instruction: turn direction, minimum speed, keep right.
- Rectangle - information. Blue is used in towns, green on rural highways, brown for tourism.
- Yellow background - temporary, usually roadworks; it overrides the permanent sign it stands beside.
Rules that hang off the signs
A speed-limit sign stays in force until the next intersection or a cancellation sign, so a limit set on a long open road does not automatically follow you through a junction. The octagonal STOP sign requires a complete stop at the stop line even when the road is obviously clear; the inverted red-bordered triangle only requires you to give way. A yellow diamond marks a priority road, which means traffic on side roads must yield to you.
Worked example
You approach a T-junction on a road carrying the yellow diamond. A car waits on the side road, which has an inverted triangle facing it. Reasoning: the diamond makes your road the priority road, so the waiting driver must give way and you may keep your speed while still scanning. Remove the diamond and the same junction falls back to the equal-priority rule - give way to traffic from the right - and the answer reverses.
Traps that cost marks
Treating give way and stop as interchangeable; assuming a sign applies only to the lane beside it; missing that a temporary yellow sign overrides the permanent one; and forgetting that a speed limit ends at the next intersection unless it is repeated.