This traffic light is used to regulate traffic:

Explanation

On the lanes of the carriageway in which the direction of travel can be reversed.

The two square eyes you see in the picture — one with a red cross and the other with a green downward arrow — are the special light for reversible lanes. It is fitted above each lane and rules directly on that lane: a red cross means entry into this lane is prohibited, a green downward arrow means this lane is open in your direction of travel.

Its application is on roads where the volume of traffic shifts at different hours of the day; in the morning the flow towards the city centre is heavy and in the evening the reverse. Instead of building a wider road, the direction of one or more middle lanes is reversed with these very lights. The inherent danger of this arrangement is head-on movement in one lane, so the permission to enter must be announced moment by moment above the driver's head, not by a fixed sign.

Memorise two points: if a diagonal amber arrow lights up, it means you must change lanes in the direction the arrow shows and clear the lane; and if these lights are switched off or out of order, you have no right to enter the reversible lane unless its separating marking permits it. The exam trap is to confuse the cross and arrow with the special lights for a bus lane.

• This light does not rule on the entire width of the carriageway; each eye decides only about the lane directly beneath which it is fitted. • A lane reserved for public-service vehicles is regulated by its own sign, marking and special light; a cross and a vertical arrow are the mark of a reversible lane.

Sources and content coverage · Report a content error