You are driving along a rural road and see a triangular warning sign with a red border showing a black symbol of a steep hump in the road surface. What is this sign warning you about, and how should it affect your driving?
- It warns that the road ahead has a series of speed bumps installed for traffic calming, and you should maintain your speed to pass over them smoothly
- It warns that the road surface ahead is uneven and pot-holed, and you should watch for loose debris rather than change your speed
- It warns of a ford crossing the road ahead, and you should check the water depth before proceeding
- It warns of a steeply humped bridge or dip that can obscure the road ahead and unsettle a vehicle if taken too fast, and you should slow down and be ready to stop
Why D? And why not the others?
Correct answer: D. It warns of a steeply humped bridge or dip that can obscure the road ahead and unsettle a vehicle if taken too fast, and you should slow down and be ready to stop
This is the 'hump bridge' warning sign, listed in the Department for Transport's official sign catalogue as diagram 528. Highway Code guidance on this sign explains that some humped bridges rise and fall steeply enough to hide oncoming traffic from view and to unsettle a vehicle's suspension or cause it to become briefly airborne if approached too fast, so the sign exists specifically to make drivers slow down and be ready to stop or give way before crossing. That is a different hazard from a series of traffic-calming speed bumps, which have their own separate sign and are not usually described as a 'bridge' at all, and it is unrelated to general pot-holed or uneven surfacing, which has its own distinct warning sign showing a wavy road symbol rather than a hump. It is also not the sign for a ford, which shows a car partly submerged in water rather than a raised hump, and a ford has nothing to do with a bridge's shape or a vehicle losing contact with the road surface.
Source: DfT Traffic Signs Manual, diagram 528 — Hump bridge (GOV.UK)