Road Traffic Law, Signs, Markings and Right-of-Way
What the exam tests
This domain checks whether you can read the road environment quickly: regulatory, warning and guide signs; pavement markings; and who must yield when movements conflict. Heavy vehicles add restricted routes, bridge limits and lane-use rules.
Core rules
- Sign shape and colour carry meaning: octagon = stop; inverted triangle = yield; circle = railway crossing advance warning in many systems; rectangle = regulatory or guide. Learn local variants.
- A sign's instruction outranks a general rule, and a police officer or temporary traffic control outranks both.
- Pavement markings: solid centre line = no crossing; broken = overtake when safe; double solid = both directions restricted; stop line = stop before it; edge lines mark the travelled way.
- Right-of-way is yielded, not taken. At an uncontrolled intersection, yield to traffic already in it; where simultaneous arrival rules apply, yield to the right. A turning vehicle yields to oncoming traffic and to pedestrians.
- Roundabouts: yield to circulating traffic; enter without stopping only when clear. Large vehicles may need both lanes; watch trailer off-tracking.
- Heavy-vehicle restrictions: weight-limited bridges, no-truck routes, tunnel dangerous-goods bans and no-engine-brake signs are enforceable.
Worked example
A loaded rigid truck and a car arrive together at an uncontrolled four-way intersection, truck travelling straight, car from the right also straight. The truck yields. Reasoning: the car is on the right and neither is turning; vehicle size confers no priority. If the car were turning left across the truck's path, the car would normally yield as the turning vehicle.
Traps
- Assuming a heavy vehicle "wins" by size.
- Confusing "No Trucks" with "No Through Trucks".
- Stopping at a yield sign when the way is clear, then rolling through a stop sign.
- Missing a lower regulatory sign beneath a warning sign.