What sign requires you to give way to vehicles traveling on an intersecting road?

Explanation

Sign 2 — the inverted "give way" triangle.

Sign 2 is a white inverted triangle with a red border and no symbol, and it is the only sign in this set that obliges you to give way to vehicles travelling on the crossing road. It is usually posted a little before the junction so that you have time to reduce speed; you must enter in such a way that no driver on the main road is forced to brake or change course.

The trap in this question is sign 3. It also creates a duty to "give way", but in a completely different situation: a narrow section of road and the oncoming flow, not a junction. If you have memorised only the phrase "which sign means give way", you will confuse the two. Remember the difference by "place of application": the inverted triangle for a junction, the two-arrow circle for a narrow stretch.

The safety point behind this sign is that a junction with no allocation of duty is the most dangerous location on the road network; angled impacts cause the greatest injury to occupants because the side of a vehicle has the least protective structure. The "give way" sign resolves that ambiguity before the junction and from a safe distance. Remember that this sign is not the same as "STOP": a complete halt is not required here, but if you do not have adequate visibility you must in practice stop.

• Sign 1 is "no entry for motor vehicles"; it prohibits entry and says nothing at all about priority. Its visual similarity (round and red) is the only reason it is wrongly chosen. • Sign 3 obliges you to give way to oncoming vehicles in a narrow section of road. It is the most attractive wrong option because it too creates a duty to give way, but not at a junction. • Sign 4 is the junction warning triangle; its subject is a junction but it only informs. At such a junction priority is determined by the "right-hand" rule, not by the sign. • Sign 5 is a supplementary plate with a double-headed arrow and has no meaning on its own; it merely defines the extent or direction of application of the main sign above it.

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