In the UK there are around 3,500,000 traffic signs, signals and road markings on the UK’s roads. This includes all those you may see in the highway code. You will need the ability to correctly interpret and explain what the road these signs could be a matter of life or death – after all, these signs and markings are put there for the benefit and safety of all road users.
Learning UK road signs is something that will unfortunately require you to take the time to study them all, this will probably take an extremely long time but will always be beneficial to you. Many signs turn up in the theory test so you do need to take the time to do this. But of course the most important reason is that you will encounter many road signs whilst driving and knowing what they mean and being able to take the appropriate action is key to being a safe driver.
There are some general rules that it is worth remembering when studying the different road signs.
There are two clues to a warning sign. The first is that they are generally triangular in shape; the second is that many of them have a thick red border line around them (although not all of them). Therefore if you see a sign that's triangular with a red border, and it contains a snowflake, then think of warnings related to snow and you should be able to come up with "risk of ice".
Road signs that give you information of some sort are rectangular, for instance a sign telling you that there are traffic cameras in operation.
When it comes to orders and telling you not to do something, then you will usually see a sign with a red circle on them.
For instance, a red bordered circle with a speed inside, say 40, tells you that you cannot go faster than 40, in other words that 40 is the maximum speed in mph that is permitted.
In addition to learning what all the road signs mean, remember that there are also the road markings, and it is essential that you learn and understand what all of these mean in order to be a safe driver. In addition questions on these form part of the bank of driving theory test questions too.
Please see below a folder for the ALL road signs from the DSA, right click and 'save link as', for your personal copy
Light Signals controlling traffic
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