Coquelicot

When you're driving and there's a change in the traffic pattern coming up soon, a warning sign will show two or more arrows. The arrow or arrows pointing up are for the lane you're in and those pointing down are for the oncoming lane. This much I know.

These arrows can be thick or thin, and red, white, or black. I think I've seen long and short arrows too. What do the colors and thicknesses indicate?

I figure red means stop but I wouldn't be surprised if you tell me I'm wrong.

Christina

This isn't a French road sign issue, I think this signage is fairly universal and you should know what they mean if you are a driver. Red doesn't mean stop if it's what I think you mean. If you saw a sign with a white arrow pointing forward on the right side of the sign, and a red arrow pointing downward on the left, it means there is a bottleneck and that the white arrow direction has priority over the red arrow direction.

Other signs mean different things with arrows.

ssander

Yikes! I will be driving in France this Fall (though only for two days).

Is there a website that I can use to learn some of the basics and print out a cheat-sheet for my wife to refer to if needed while I am driving? (Recently did some driving in Ireland but I assume it's different in France.)

ssander

lavandula

I googled and found this:

http://www.drive-france.com/faqs/french-road-signs/

As for the cheat sheet they have a link to an in-depth e-book you can buy for £2, if you feel it necessary.

TBH I would not have known about the arrows - that isn't a universal language and certainly wouldn't make an appearance where I come from. Thanks for posting.

Lavandula

Cowboy1968

Triangle sign. One black arrow up, one black arrow down = Two-way traffic.
Seen mostly where motorways with seperated lanes become regular country roads.

Round sign. One red arrow up, one black down. Bottleneck. You must yield to oncoming traffic. Typically at narrow bridges or similar.

Square blue sign. One white arrow up, one red arrow down. Bottleneck. You have priority.

In some countries the latter two sometimes feature thicker arrows to stronger visualize the relevant info, i.e. red = yield, white = priority. The thickness itself is irrelevant, though.

Square or rectangular sign with two or more arrows up. Indicates the number of lanes on a motorway or similar.

The design is identical across Continental Europe and beyond. Ireland, the republic, does indeed has different signage to some extent.

kerouac

The big arrow simply indicates which direction has the right of way when the passage is too narrow for two way traffic. The most common place to see this sign is on small bridges.

ribeirasacra

kerouac,the sign you write about are these
https://www2.editions-tissot.fr/doc/...rse-1-6645.jpg
https://www2.editions-tissot.fr/doc/...rse-1-6604.jpg


The thickness is not of importance designs change over the years.
What is important is that if you travelling the same direction as the white arrow on the image you have right of way.
If you have red arrow on the second image you should give way.
However just be cautious in these situations as not every diver can read the signs!

ribeirasacra

Here are some more signs for the OP to read about.
http://www.giteinbrittany.com/docume...nalisation.pdf

StCirq

Everything you ever need to know:

https://www.codeclic.com/gratuit.php

iris1745

Coquelicot; You will be fine. On major roads, just stay

within the speed limit.

Or the 'speed cameras' will surely get you.

ssander

Thanks all...very useful informaation.
ssander

kerouac

I'm on the road at the moment and have come across a number of those signs, reminding me that they are even more common driving through old stone arches than on bridges.

ira

Here is more than you will ever want to know about road signs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_France

ribeirasacra

how strange Wiki does not give a description of what they mean. I dont need to know as I often drive through France, but others will not.

Coquelicot

I'm still not clear on the difference between black arrows and white arrows on these signs. Does anybody know?

Most of the road signs are familiar to us, so my question is kind of fine-tuning. We've been driving in France since the day when stop signs said "Arret."

Iris, your good advice comes too late. It was an expensive lesson to learn.

Cowboy, those are exactly the signs we saw on a narrow country road that was being repaired. On one side of the bottleneck was a round red sign and on the other a square blue sign. I'd have expected both signs to be round red but maybe that's all that was available in the equipment shed that day.

kerouac

Depending on the age of those signs, sometimes the arrows are black and sometimes they are white. But generally there is a big arrow and a little arrow. The big arrow has priority. If the arrows are the same size, the red arrow is the one that does not have the right of way.

If you encounter these signs, you will also discover that it is quite intuitive.

Coquelicot

Kerouac, we discovered these signs when we were walking one evening, on either side of a short section of road that had been dug up. It was the combination of signs in one place, one with a white arrow and the other with a black arrow, that confused me.

So the signs have changed over the years, and the newer ones have a white arrow. Good to know.

StCirq

You also have to pay attention to the distance between the lines when there are broken lines on the roads. Can you tell we're studying for our French driving licenses? Driving us nuts. And they also just made changes to the rules a few days ao, I've heard.