Road Signs and Road Markings
This domain tests whether you can read a sign or marking at a glance and turn it into the correct action, not merely name it. Transport Malta's Code of the Road groups signs by shape and colour, and the exam reuses that logic heavily, so learning the system beats memorising pictures.
Shapes carry the message
- Red-bordered triangle - warning of a hazard ahead: bend, junction, pedestrian crossing, slippery road.
- Red circle - prohibition or restriction: speed limits, no entry (red disc with a white horizontal bar), no overtaking, no parking.
- Blue circle - mandatory instruction: direction to turn, keep left, minimum speed, cycle or bus lane.
- Red octagon - STOP: a full stop at the line every time, even when nothing is in sight.
- Inverted triangle - give way: slow down, be ready to stop, proceed only when clear.
- Rectangle or square - information and direction: parking, hospital, one-way street, place names.
Maltese signs are bilingual, so read the symbol first and the wording second; the exam often uses a sign whose text you should not need at all.
Markings
- Continuous white centre line - do not cross or straddle it; no overtaking.
- Broken white centre line - cross only when it is safe and the road ahead is clear.
- Double broken line across your lane - give-way line at a junction.
- Solid line at a STOP sign - stop line; stop behind it.
- Yellow criss-cross box - enter only if your exit is clear; do not sit in it.
- Yellow lines at the kerb - parking and waiting restrictions; check the plates and times.
Worked example
You approach a junction marked by a red octagon, a thick solid white line, and beyond it a yellow criss-cross box already full of queuing traffic. Correct sequence: stop completely behind the line, then stay there - the box is blocked, so entering it would breach the box rule and could block the crossing road. Waiting behind the line is the marked answer.
Traps
Confusing no entry with no through road; treating a give-way triangle as a stop sign (you need not stop when clear, but must be able to); assuming a broken line gives an unconditional right to cross; ignoring the small supplementary plate under a sign.