The paint is a sign
Most learners treat road markings as decoration around the real signs. In law they are the same thing. The Act empowers the Minister to prescribe signs, signals and markings together, all of them called road traffic signs, and failing to comply with a direction conveyed by any of them is an offence. The regulations then sort road traffic signs into three classes: road signs, road markings and road signals.
The manual makes the practical point better than the law does. Markings may be used to supplement signs and signals, or entirely on their own — and they are often visible when a sign is obscured, giving a driver a continuous message down the length of a road in a way no sign on a pole can.
This is also why they are on the test. The examiner has to satisfy themselves that you know and understand the road traffic signs, and markings are road traffic signs. There is no separate markings section of the paper, which is why a learner who works through several hundred signs and skips the paint has prepared for part of the largest section.
The three classes of marking
The class is what tells you how much the marking is asking of you. The two-letter prefix in the marking's number tells you the class.
| Class | Prefix | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory, transverse | RTM | Runs across your lane and imposes a requirement at that point: the stop line, the yield line, pedestrian crossing lines |
| Regulatory, longitudinal | RM | Runs along the road and imposes a requirement for its length: no-overtaking and no-crossing lines, channelising lines, edge lines, painted islands, no-stopping and no-parking lines |
| Warning | WM | Tells you about something without binding you: the dividing line between opposing traffic, continuity lines, lane reduction arrows, a speed hump, a yield or no-overtaking line coming up |
| Guidance | GM | Positions you: lane lines, guide lines through a junction, bifurcation and information arrows, bicycle guide lines, symbols and word markings |
Roadstuds and other delineation devices — guardrail delineators, flood and snow delineators, cones — are counted as road markings too, and are used to reinforce a marking where visibility is poor.
Across or along: the split that does most of the work
A transverse marking runs roughly at right angles to the centre line of the road, so it applies at a point: a stop line requires something of you where it is painted and nowhere else. A longitudinal marking runs along the road and applies for as long as it lasts — a no-overtaking line binds you from where it starts to where it ends.
That distinction is why the regulations split regulatory markings into transverse and longitudinal but do not split warning and guidance markings at all. Only regulatory markings need the difference spelled out, because only they carry a requirement that has to be located.
What the three colours mean
Colour does not tell you the class — a solid white line can be a strict prohibition and a broken white line a mere warning. What colour does is separate a handful of markings that would otherwise be identical.
| Colour | Where you see it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| White | Almost everything: the lines down the middle, lane lines, the stop and yield lines, crossing lines, guide lines, the right edge line | White is the default. It tells you nothing about the class on its own — read the pattern instead |
| Yellow | The line along the left edge of the roadway; a line at the kerb; a line marking off a bus or other exclusive-use lane; the diagonal bars inside a painted island | Yellow marks a boundary you are normally not meant to be on the far side of |
| Red | A line at or near the kerb, and nothing else | No stopping. Red on the road surface means one thing only |
The pair that matters most in town: a yellow line at the kerb is a NO PARKING line, and a red line at the kerb is a NO STOPPING line. Red is stricter, and that is the only place where the colour alone answers the question.
The transverse markings you will be asked about
The stop line and the yield line are the two that carry real weight, and they carry it even when nobody is holding them up. A stop line requires you to stop immediately behind it, and it has the significance of the stop sign itself. If the stop sign has fallen down, been stolen, or a signal at that junction is out of order, the painted line still requires you to stop. A yield line works the same way for a missing yield sign.
Pedestrian crossing lines mark the place where you must give priority to a person crossing or waiting to cross, and the block pedestrian crossing is the heavier version of the same marking. Wherever a vehicle has stopped at a pedestrian crossing, you may not pass it.
The lines along the road, in one paragraph
A broken line is a warning or a guidance marking and you may cross it when it is safe. A solid line is a regulatory marking and crossing it is prohibited except in a closed list of cases: three for a single solid line, one for a double.
That is the whole of it at this level, and it is the single most examined thing in the signs section, so it has a page of its own rather than three lines here.
Markings that are not lines at all
A painted island is an area, not a line: white boundary lines with yellow diagonal or chevron bars inside them. You may not drive across it, stop on it or park on it, except on the directions of a traffic officer or in an emergency.
Mandatory direction arrows painted in a lane tell you the only direction you may take from that lane, and there is a warning version painted further back to give you time to change lanes. A box junction is the cross-hatched square at a busy intersection, and its rule is simple and widely ignored: do not enter it unless you can clear it.
Word and symbol markings — a bicycle, a bus, an arrow, a written message — are guidance markings. They are elongated on purpose so they read correctly from a moving vehicle rather than from above.
The numbers worth knowing
- Minimum line width
- 100 mmThe minimum width of any line marking. Some markings are specified wider — a no-stopping line is at least 150 mm.
- Broken lines
- Described by a line-to-gap ratioA dividing line and a lane line both run one part line to two parts gap; the dividing line uses longer strokes and longer gaps.
- Roadstud colours
- Red prohibits, yellow warns, white guidesOnly three colours of roadstud may be used, and each carries that meaning alongside the marking it reinforces.
- Where markings are examined
- Inside the road signs sectionNot as a section of their own. This is the single most common gap in a learner's preparation.
The mistake
Studying signs and skipping the paint. Markings are examined inside the signs section, so the effect is not that you lose a small separate section — you have prepared for part of the biggest one.
The second is reading colour as class. A solid white line is one of the strictest markings on the road and a broken white line beside it is only a warning. The pattern carries the class; the colour only separates a few markings that would otherwise look the same.
Practise markings with the signs, the way the test does
Our free practice mixes markings into the road signs topic rather than treating them separately, and every answer comes with an explanation of what the marking actually requires.
Practise road signs and markings freeCommon questions
Are road markings on the learner's licence test?
Yes, and they are examined inside the road signs section rather than as a section of their own. Markings are road traffic signs in law, so they fall inside the examiner's duty to satisfy themselves that you know the road traffic signs.
What do the colours of road markings mean in South Africa?
White is the default and tells you nothing about the class on its own. Yellow marks a boundary you are normally not meant to cross — the left edge of the roadway, a kerbside no-parking line, an exclusive-use lane. Red on the road surface means no stopping.
What is the difference between a regulatory and a warning marking?
A regulatory marking imposes a requirement and disobeying it is an offence. A warning marking tells you about something ahead or beside you without binding you. Both can be white, which is why the pattern rather than the colour is what you read.
Does a stop line still apply if the stop sign is missing?
Yes. A stop line carries the full significance of the stop sign, so it applies when the sign has fallen down or is temporarily missing, or when a signal at that junction is out of order. A yield line works the same way.
Can I stop on a painted island?
No. A painted island — white boundary lines with yellow bars inside — may not be driven across, stopped on or parked on, except on the directions of a traffic officer or in an emergency.
Sources
- National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 — sections 56 and 58Section 56(1) empowers the Minister to prescribe "such signs, signals, markings or other devices (to be known as road traffic signs)" as well as their significance. Section 58(1): "no person shall, unless otherwise directed by a traffic officer, fail to comply with any direction conveyed by a road traffic sign displayed in the prescribed manner".
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 285(2)(b)Class II: Road markings — (i) regulatory markings, comprising transverse regulatory markings and longitudinal regulatory markings; (ii) warning markings; and (iii) guidance markings.
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 104(2)(a)(ii)The examiner shall satisfy himself or herself that the applicant knows and understands the road traffic signs — which, under regulation 285, include road markings.
- SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 7 (May 2012) — §7.1.1 to §7.1.5Road markings are "markings embedded in, or applied, or attached, to the road surface, kerbing, or to objects within or adjacent to the roadway for the purpose of regulating, warning or guiding traffic", and "may be used to supplement road signs and traffic signals, or they may be used on their own". Types include transverse markings "(approximately at right angles to the roadway centre line)", longitudinal markings, arrows, painted islands, symbols, words, parking markings, roadstuds and other delineation devices; these are classified as regulatory, warning and guidance markings, roadstuds and other delineation devices. "The minimum width of any line marking shall be 100 mm." Table 7.2 specifies white, yellow and red.
- SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 7 (May 2012) — §7.2.1 and §7.2.2, stop line RTM1 and yield line RTM2A stop line "shall have the significance assigned to STOP sign R1", with the effect that where the sign "has fallen down or is temporarily missing, or if a traffic signal is temporarily out of order", the stop line "shall have the full significance of the sign". The yield line works the same way for the yield sign.
- SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 7 (May 2012) — §7.2.9, painted islands RM5Drivers "shall not drive a vehicle in such a manner that it, or any part of it, crosses such a marking, OR to park or stop a vehicle upon such marking, EXCEPT: (a) if directed to do so by a traffic officer; (b) in the case of an emergency". Composed of white boundary lines with yellow sloping bars in a diagonal or chevron pattern within them.
- SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 7 (May 2012) — §7.5.2, roadstud colour coding"Only three colours of roadstud may be used to supplement road markings": "RED shall mean PROHIBITION; YELLOW shall mean WARNING; WHITE shall offer GUIDANCE."
- SADC Road Traffic Signs Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 7 (May 2012) — §7.2.16 and §7.2.17, no stopping line RM12 and no parking line RM13The no stopping line is red — a continuous solid red line of at least 150 mm for 24-hour applicability. The no parking line is yellow, at least 100 mm. Both may be marked parallel to a left side kerb line.
- SA Learner Driver Manual, Section 2: Road Traffic Signs (Department of Transport, June 2012) — §7.1 to §7.3The syllabus treatment of the regulatory, warning and guidance markings sign by sign, with the action required of the driver for each, including the box junction and the mandatory direction arrows.
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 315(4)"Whenever any vehicle is stopped at a pedestrian crossing to permit pedestrians to cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not pass such stopped vehicle."
Last updated 2026-09-21.