When You See This Sign, You Must Slow Down!

Blue rectangular road signs are of an informative nature, but one sign in particular should cause drivers to act more appropriately, mostly by slowing down and becoming more alert than is usual.

The sign with the official code of S-28, is used to indicate the entrance to a residential zone. There is a sister sign, which is the same other than a horizontal red band running from the bottom left to the top right, which indicates the end of the residential zone.

Why this sign deserves particular highlights is that the area between the signs, the residential zone, is an area primarily intended for pedestrians, What that means is that pedestrians may use the entire traffic zone, and those pedestrians have priority on the road over vehicles, and so, pedestrians may be anywhere in the road, including children who are permitted to play in the street, and therefore even pedestrian crossings are not marked.

In order to make these zones as safe as possible, special traffic regulations apply, which, in addition to the priority being given to pedestrians, vehicles must not exceed 10 kilometres per hour in this zone.

Plus, vehicles wanting to park on the residential zone must only do so in places designated by signs or markings, and on these roads, bicycles may circulate in both directions, unless otherwise established by the competent authority.

Because of the speed restriction in place, there will normally be an accompanying sign indicating the 10 kilometre per hour restriction, the R-301.

Once you reach the end of the residential zone, indicated by the S-29 sign with the red diagonal line, the general traffic regulations apply again.