It’s a common road sign you’ll see in various cities across the UK, especially in urban city centres with lots of traffic control measures like London, Leeds and Manchester.
But despite being a mainstay of British roads for decades, many drivers don’t seem to know what a red circle on a sign with a car and bike on it really means, or they agree that it’s too confusing for other drivers. Some have even suggested that local councils are making money off the back of the confusion, sending out fines to those who unwittingly break its direction.
Posting in Reddit subforum r/LearnerDriverUK, user u/6-foot-under said: “This road sign should be changed. I know that everyone has a duty to learn road signs, but this one looks to mean the opposite of what it means. There’s places all over London where the council are collecting thousands a day (£60 a pop) from people clearly not knowing what it means. If it just had a diagonal line through it, no-one would be confused.”
u/recycledbabies said: “I passed my test a year ago and still don’t know what this one means.”
u/commandblock said: “For real. They should put a line through it. Just makes more sense.”
Another user, u/gravitea, said: “I mean I understand what this sign means but I have no idea why it means what it means. Red circle means order, and pretty much every function forbidding something has a line through it. Except for ones like this, no idea why…”
According to u/donttakeawaymycake, the reason there is no line striking through the sign to show something is prohibited is due to visibility.
They said: “The red cross across the sign is omitted in traffic signage (compared to normal signage) so that it doesn’t obscure the shape of the symbols when viewing it at speed.”
According to the Highway Code, signs with red circles are ‘mostly prohibitive’.
It says: “Signs with red circles are mostly prohibitive. Plates below signs qualify their message.”
Below the photo of a car and bike in a red circle, it explains that the sign means ‘No Motor Vehicles’.
On the other hand, blue signs give instructions about what you should do, rather than what you shouldn’t.
It adds: “Signs with blue circles but no red border mostly give positive instruction.”