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07 · Signs

Signs, markings, and who goes first

Published · Updated · About 16 minutes of reading

Bulgaria uses the European sign system: shapes first, then the symbol, then any plate underneath. The drawings on this page are memory aids made for the article. They are not the regulated artwork, and they are not a set you can treat as complete.

A red-bordered inverted triangle give-way sign against a brick wall
Illustration. This photograph is not a picture of a named road in Bulgaria. The give-way shape is the one used in Bulgaria; the wall behind it is not a Bulgarian junction.
  1. 1

    A person directing traffic

    If an officer’s signal and a light disagree, follow the officer. The same is true against a sign.

  2. 2

    A portable sign in the carriageway

    A sign on a stand in the road overrides the fixed signs around it. Works use this constantly.

  3. 3

    The light signal

    When a light and a fixed sign disagree about priority, follow the light.

  4. 4

    The fixed traffic sign

    When a sign and a road marking disagree, follow the sign.

  5. 5

    The marking

    Arrows, stop lines, and lane lines apply when nothing above them has said otherwise. Temporary markings during works replace the old pattern.

Shapes, read before the words

You will not always read a plate in time. The silhouette is the message. Plates in Bulgaria may be in Cyrillic. A place name you cannot read is a reason to slow down, not a reason to ignore the shape.

  • Warning

    A triangle point-up. Junctions, bends, crossings, animals, works. It does not by itself set a speed. It tells you the hazard is ahead.

  • Give way

    A triangle point-down, red border. Yield. You do not have priority. The stop sign is the octagon, a full stop, not a rolling one.

  • Priority road

    A yellow diamond with a white rim. You are on the priority road until the same diamond appears cancelled. End of priority is the diamond with a black bar.

  • Prohibition

    A red ring. No entry, no overtaking, a weight limit, a speed limit. A number inside a red ring is a maximum, not a target.

  • Obligation

    A blue disc. Direction you must take, or a path you must use. Blue is not a suggestion in this family.

  • Direction

    Rectangular panels. On a Bulgarian motorway these direction panels are green. Other roads use blue panels. The colour is a clue to the class of road, which is why a blue German motorway sign in a photograph is not a lesson about Bulgaria.

The sign that changes your speed

A built-up area begins and ends with place-name signs. Inside, the general limit for almost every motor vehicle is 50 km/h unless another sign sets something else. Outside, a car returns to 90 unless the road is signed as express or motorway. People miss this when the buildings thin out before the end-of-town sign, or when the town sign is still up beside a road that feels rural.

Motorway start and motorway end are their own signs. Between them, a car’s general limit is 140. After the end sign, it is not. Express roads have their own start and end, and 120 for a car. The numbers, and the lower ones for motorcycles and lorries, are in the car guide.

Markings and works

White lines divide lanes and show edges. A stop line belongs with a stop sign or a light. Arrows in the lane are mandatory for the direction they show. Yellow or temporary markings during works are the ones to follow when they replace the permanent paint.

Do not overtake when the line forbids it, when you cannot see, or when the vehicle ahead hides a crossing. Pedestrians on a crossing have priority, including a person at the kerb who has signalled the intention to cross. Details sit in the driving pages: motorcycles have the same signs and a lower speed table.

If a sign and this page disagree, the sign is right. A schematic triangle is not a defence. The disclaimer says the same thing in plainer legal language. For a route that depends on these signs, see planning a drive.

Four situations

The drawing on this site is a memory. The plate outside is the rule.

Nothing in the schematic drawings is issued by an authority. They are here so a reader can remember a shape. Colour, exact pictogram, and language on the real plate win every time.

Motorway ends

The end of a motorway is a change of class, not a pause in the scenery. Green direction signs give way to the ordinary system. The general car limit falls from 140 to whatever the next class allows — 120 if the next road is express, 90 if it is an ordinary road outside a town — and then to 50 at the town sign. People miss this when the carriageway still looks wide for a few hundred metres. The sign is earlier than the feeling.

Entering a town

The place-name sign is also a speed instruction. Built-up area, 50 km/h for the vehicles in the general table, unless a plate sets 40 or 30 or some other number. Residential zones at 20 are a further plate, not the ordinary town sign. Do not carry motorway following-distance habits into a street with crossings.

Roundabout

Read the give-way at the entry. Vehicles already on the roundabout are the ones you yield to when the entry is signed that way, which is the usual case. A roundabout is also a place trucks need the outer room and riders need a clean surface. Do not change the bargain mid-circle because a lane looks empty for a second.

Works and temporary plates

When instructions conflict, the order used in these guides is the one in the traffic rules: a person directing traffic, then a portable sign standing in the carriageway, then the lights, then the fixed signs, then the markings. A temporary marking during works replaces the permanent paint. A yellow temporary plate is not decoration beside an older white one. Follow the person with the baton even when the light behind them is still green.

Bus lanes, tram tracks, and cycle tracks in cities are reserved by marking and plate. Using one to gain a position is a common way to collect a fine and, worse, to meet a bus or a tram that had the lane by right. Level crossings: the lights and the barriers outrank impatience, and overtaking into an open crossing is forbidden in the rules already summarised on the car page.

Direction signs in the Latin alphabet appear on major corridors and still leave local plates in Cyrillic. Learn the Cyrillic of the town you are entering if you will have to read a small plate at 50 km/h. A phonetic guess at 90 is how people leave the road they meant to stay on.