The classes of sign
Zimbabwe's signs fall into families, and each family is known by its shape and its colour before you read a word of it. Get the shape right and half of the sign questions answer themselves.
What the test asks
About a third of the whole bank holds up a plate and asks what it means. A smaller set asks the family instead: what shape a warning sign is, what shape a command sign is, whether the sign in front of you is regulatory, informative or a direction sign.
Warning signs are triangles
Danger warning signs are triangles, red edged with a black symbol on white, and every one of them warns of something ahead: a crossroads, a hump, a dip or ridge, a narrow bridge, loose stones, road works, wild animals, farm animals, children, cyclists, reduced visibility, a physical barrier, a robot ahead, a stop or give way sign ahead. A warning sign is normally posted about 100 m before the thing it names.
Two are worth remembering as exceptions to the shape. The plate warning of a detour ahead sits inside a rectangle, and a sign that warns of a hazard of a variable nature is telling you the danger is not always there.
Regulatory signs give an order
Regulatory signs carry the force of law, and most of them are circles. A red bordered circle forbids something. A blue circle orders something.
A red bordered circle sets a limit: no faster than the number inside it.
A blue circle gives an instruction: this piece of road is for pedal cycles.
Prohibitions in the papers include no U turn, no parking, no stopping, no overtaking, no overtaking by a goods vehicle, no motorcycles, no cyclists or pedestrians, no hitch hiking, no left turn, and the restrictions on width, height, length and weight. A weight restriction usually goes with a bridge and what it can carry.
Stop and give way
The two that matter most are not circles at all. Stop is an eight sided red plate and give way is a red triangle standing on its point, and they are not the same instruction:
- Stop means come to a complete stop at the line, then go when the road is clear on both sides.
- Give way means slow down, be ready to stop, and give precedence to all cross traffic. You do not have to stop if nothing is coming.
Both have a line painted across the road with them, and that line carries the same message as the sign.
The rail crossing
A railway crossing is warned of in advance by a red triangle with a train on it. At the crossing itself you meet a yellow cross with a red light on each arm. Neither is a regulatory circle: they warn you and then they tell you when a train is coming.
The warning sign for a railway crossing ahead.
Information and direction signs
Information signs are rectangles, in black, white and blue, and they tell you something rather than order it: a stadium ahead, a bus lane, a parking place, a dual carriage free way beginning, a direction and a distance. A direction sign is its own group within them.
The derestriction sign is the one worth singling out, because it is a circle rather than a rectangle and it cancels rather than commands: a red cross drawn through the message that no longer applies.
Signals and road markings
Traffic signals are the robots, the arrows beside them, and the police signals that override them all. Carriageway markings are the lines and arrows painted on the road surface, which have their own note. Both are traffic control devices in the Code's own list, alongside the signs on posts.
The mistakes learners make
The shape is the first read, not the picture inside it: a triangle warns, a circle orders, a rectangle informs. A stop sign and a give way sign ask for different things, and only one of them requires the wheels to stop turning. And the papers file the one way sign in two different families, once as informative and once as a command, so on that one question read the options you are given rather than the rule you learned.