Have You Seen This New Sign Yet?

When the Spanish Catalogue of Road Signs was recently added to, with some existing signs being updated and modernised, there were also some new, never before seen signs incorporated, and of those, one is seemingly causing some confusion for drivers as to the meaning.

The new sign in question is officially known as the P-35, a triangular shape with red edges, so it indicates caution, a warning. Inside, two cars appear in parallel with arrows at the top that intersect.

It is perhaps no surprise that there is some confusion, as the description of what the sign means is “danger due to the proximity of a section between a confluence and a fork where different lane-changing movements occur by vehicles, crossing their trajectories and therefore increasing the risk of collisions occurring.”

However, there is good news, because it´s nowhere near as confusing as it seems, especially given that although the sign might be new, the situation it is warning about is not, and there is a high probability that you would have driven through a section in question.

The most likely location of this sign is on motorways, and specifically where two motorways merge. The sign will not appear in all cases of this, just where there has been an identified increased risk, hence the added warning.

When motorways merge, there is a long area from where the lanes first meet, to where the number of lanes reduce to form the continuation of the road. Vehicles merging onto the main motorway need to slow down, if necessary, indicate to join an outer lane where appropriate, and then continue along the normal driving lane of the new road.

The General Directorate of Traffic has advised drivers to exercise extreme caution when they see the P-35 sign to avoid typical rear-end collisions that occur during this manoeuvre.