This horizontal road marking indicates:

Explanation

The place where you must stop, if necessary, to give way.

In the picture a row of white triangles is drawn across the width of the traffic lane, with their apexes pointing towards the driver. This marking is the counterpart of "give way" on the asphalt: it shows the point before which you must, if necessary, stop in order to give way to vehicles on the road you are crossing.

The key words are "if necessary". Unlike the stop line that accompanies a stop sign and requires a complete and unconditional halt, this marking obliges you to reduce your speed to the point of full control and to stop only when the way is not clear. If the crossing flow is empty, stopping is not compulsory.

The position of the triangles is not accidental either: they are drawn at the point where the driver has the best view of the crossing road while still not having entered its path of travel. Every metre you stop beyond this line means both occupying part of the crossing carriageway and losing your angle of view.

The exam trap is confusing this pattern with the warning of a narrowing carriageway; narrowing and the end of a lane are announced with curved arrows, not with triangles.

• Narrowing of the carriageway and a reduction in the number of lanes are warned of by curved arrows on the asphalt, not by a row of triangles. • A prohibition on stopping is announced by a longitudinal marking at the edge of the carriageway and the corresponding sign; transverse triangles speak about priority, not about parking.

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