Basic traffic theory

10. Language of the road

A car cannot talk. A road cannot say anything. And if a cyclist shouts that they want to turn left, nobody hears what they are saying. Yet the car, the road and the cyclist have to tell each other things all the time — such as when they want to turn left or right, where to drive, where to stop and where you are not allowed to enter. Cars, roads, cyclists and pedestrians can fortunately also communicate without words. They give each other signals.

The use of signals began a very long time ago. Think of the Native American signs we can see in caves. To this day we make great use of signals. Think of sign language, which people with speech and/or hearing difficulties use to communicate with each other, and the various signs on or beside the road. The advantage of using signals is that everyone can understand them, regardless of the language they speak.

But do not be mistaken! Signals are not used just like that. There are rules attached to them. Signals provide information — they tell you something.

Look at the signals shown above. These signals tell you something. If you pay close attention, you will notice that there are signals everywhere telling you what you may or may not do, that you need to pay attention, and so on. With most signals you only see a picture — there are no words with them. In traffic too, people must work with signals. Signals on the road surface, signals along the road and signals that we ourselves must give. This is how we communicate with each other in traffic. So in traffic we use what is essentially a language.

We call that language: the language of the road.

We divide the language of the road into:

• Active language of the road
• Passive language of the road