What are traffic signs?
Transit or traffic signs are images that appear on billboards located on public roads. Their symbols inform us of different things. They have different shapes and colors depending on what they want to convey to us. The meaning of each sign is to alert or inform the driver or pedestrian of what is happening on the road. It helps you know when you need to take precautions or when there is a special risk on the road.
Failure to comply with these signs is an infraction and carries a penalty.
How many traffic signals are there?
The quantity oscillates between 150 and 200 signals, depending on this number of each country. They are divided into groups, namely: informative, regulatory or prohibitive, preventive and transitory.
Informative signs
This type is one of the best known. They have the function of informing, indicating and alerting the pedestrian of situations that take place on public roads. They also indicate the nearby places that we are going to meet and the services they offer. These signs have a blue background, white text, and black symbols. We can find those to report on hospitals, rest areas, airports, gas stations…
Regulatory or prohibitive signs
These types of signs have the function of regulating access for both pedestrians and drivers to different places. They show the limits and prohibitions that are in the way. Violating one of these signs is an infraction and can be punishable. Its appearance is geometric, with red borders, a white background and black symbols. They are very visual, and the mere appearance lets the pedestrian or driver know to stop and look at the symbols. The most common are give way, STOP, no entry, no pedestrians, no turning in a specific direction…
Cautionary or Warning Signs
What this group of symbols indicates are the risks or attention factors that exist on the route. These images have a yellow background and black symbols and letters. They have the function of preventing possible dangers and informing. Among the most common we can find those that indicate a fork, a dangerous curve in the road, the passage of children, schools, the possible appearance of different animals…
Transient signals
This is a group that is distinguished because they are not permanent over time. That is to say, they put them on for a certain time, for example, the duration of a work on a highway. We can find them in streets that are being repaired or where there is a worker. They are orange in color and have black symbols and letters. Cones and barriers are also found in this group. Some of these signs can be those of a Banderillero, a man working, machinery…
Other traffic signs
Apart from the four main groups that have been described above, there are other types of signals.
One of these signs are the signs of the ground, which are the ones that inform the direction that a driver can take on a road. We can find several types: white arrows, yellow lines and white lines.
The white arrows simply indicate the directions available to the driver.
The yellow lines in the center of the road indicate that each lane is going in the opposite direction. If they are two continuous lines, it means that it is not allowed to pass them to overtake another car. If, on the other hand, they are discontinuous, you can overtake the other vehicle.
White lines, on the other hand, serve to divide a road into two lanes that go in the same direction. They have the same meaning as the yellow lines, if they are continuous you cannot cross them to overtake. While if they are discontinuous you are allowed to do so.
Another group of traffic signals that people do not usually consider as such are light signals or traffic lights. When the light is green it means you can pass or go ahead. His equivalence with a traffic agent is when he stands aside. It authorizes both drivers and pedestrians. When the light is yellow it means that, if you started walking before it turned yellow, you must continue; but if, on the other hand, you had not started to circulate, you must stop. The traffic officer will stand with his arms raised and extended. Finally, the red light. As we all know, when we see this light, we must stop the vehicle or stand in the case of pedestrians. In this case, the agent will be standing from the front or from the back, depending on where you are on the road.
As said before, there are between 150 and 200 traffic signs. The most important ones are collected in this article. The others tend to be more specific and depend to a greater extent on the circumstances of each country, city or situation in which you are. But you don’t have to worry, the symbols allow you to figure out what you mean without much trouble.
