You are approaching a junction and notice a plain triangular sign, point-down, with a red border and no visible wording, positioned before a broken white line painted across the road. What does this shape alone tell you, even if you cannot read any text on it?
- It is a warning sign about a hazard ahead, identical in meaning to an upright warning triangle
- It marks a give-way junction: you must give priority to traffic on the road you are joining, but you do not have to stop if the way is clear
- It is a mandatory stop, requiring you to halt completely regardless of other traffic
- It only applies to HGVs and coaches; other vehicles may treat it as advisory
Why B? And why not the others?
Correct answer: B. It marks a give-way junction: you must give priority to traffic on the road you are joining, but you do not have to stop if the way is clear
The point-down triangle is a shape used exclusively for the give-way sign, so its meaning is recognisable purely from its orientation, without needing to read any wording, which matters when a sign is dirty, iced over, or seen only briefly in poor light. It tells a driver to give priority to traffic already on the road being joined, but unlike a STOP sign it does not force a full stop when the road is genuinely clear. An upright warning triangle is a different, point-up shape used for hazard warnings such as bends or narrow bridges, so treating this inverted sign as identical to that one misreads the shape code entirely. Describing it as a mandatory stop confuses it with the unrelated octagonal STOP sign, which does require a full halt regardless of visible traffic. Restricting its meaning to HGVs and coaches is also wrong, since give-way rules at this shape apply to every class of vehicle using the junction, not a subset of them.
Source: The Highway Code: Traffic signs — signs giving orders (GOV.UK), Give Way sign