What do these signs mean?

Why that is the answer

These countdown markers show that you are approaching a motorway exit. Each bar represents 100 yards to the deceleration lane, giving you time to position your vehicle safely in the left-hand lane. Emergency telephone markers are different, as they are small blue location posts placed every 100 metres pointing towards the nearest phone. The Highway Code uses these countdown signs to help drivers prepare to leave the motorway smoothly.

How this comes up in the real test

Questions from motorway rules appear throughout the 50-question multiple-choice section, and the wording changes between versions. Learn the rule rather than the sentence: the DVSA can ask the same point from the opposite direction, and a memorised answer falls over the moment the phrasing moves.

The pass mark is 43 out of 50, so seven wrong answers is your entire margin. If a whole category is shaky, run the topic practice below until you are getting every question right for the right reason, then go back to full mocks under the clock.

More motorway rules questions

• Before making a journey on the motorway it is important to check your vehicle fully. Why is this?
• Following a breakdown on the hard shoulder, how should you rejoin the motorway?
• How do smart motorways avoid traffic clustering?
• How should you deal with traffic already on the motorway when joining from a slip road?
• In England and Wales, traffic officers work on motorways as well as some secondary routes. What powers do they have?
• On a motorway, how are the lanes to be used?