Topic 2: Traffic Signals
There are mainly 5 types of traffic signals. They are
- Segnali di pericolo(Signals for danger) – Can be identified by a triangle with respective danger signs (Save the exceptions). These signals are helpful to understand whether there are any dangerous aspects in our route such as the presence of speed breakers, dangerous road curves, railway tracks, footpaths, road inclinations, narrow roads, etc. Since these signals are used to alert users well ahead of the danger, they are usually placed 150 meters before the danger spot (Save the exceptions) to preannounce the danger.
- Segnali di precedenza (Signals for precedence) – Looks similar to the danger signals and can be remembered easily since they are very few(around 10 symbols). These are the signals used to resolve who has the precedence across junctions by following the respective signals.
- Segnali divieto (Signals for prohibition) – Can be identified by a thin red strip circle with white background (Save the exceptions). Most common symbols of this type of divieto di sosta and divieto la fermata.These are generally used to alert the driver which roads are prohibited to enter for which kinds of vehicles or pedestrians. Also very often used to understand a driver whether he can do a fermata or a sosta at particular places.
- Segnali di Obbligo (Signals for Obligation) – Can be identified by a circle with blue background with symbols(like arrows, etc) with white color. These are the signals used to understand which is the mandatory path to be taken for drivers based on the respective white arrows on the signals.
- Segnali di indicazione (Signals for indication) – The signals which do not come under previous types. And these are the signals used for giving helpful information to the driver to drive on the road safely like signals of one-way or two-way roads, signals for showing nearby hospitals/rivers/hotels/information points, directions to reach a particular place, etc. These signals are generally quadrilateral in shape instead of circles.
Out of these 5 types of signals the below 3 types of signals i.e.
- Segnali di precedenza (Signals for precedence)
- Segnali divieto (Signals for prohibition)
- Segnali di Obbligo (Signals for Obligation)
come under a classification called segnali di prescrizione because these are the signals that are used to provide information for the drivers.
Topic 3: Distanza di sicurezza (Security Distance)
| Depends On | Does not depend on |
| The velocity of the vehicle we drive and also that of the preceding vehicle | Dimensions of the preceding vehicle |
| At the reflex potential of the driver and his psychometric conditions | On how large the vehicle which we drive |
| Type of vehicle which we drive and its efficiency and condition of the vehicle(regarding tires, breaks, suspensions..etc) | On the cylinder or the potential of the vehicle |
| On the traffic conditions | On the alimentazione(Eg: Petrol, Diesel or GPL..etc) |
| On the driving plane like driving on the ramp up or ramp down | Presence of Power steering |
| The atmospheric conditions like rain, snow,..etc | On the vehicle limit depicted at the back of the preceding vehicle |
| The entity of the load we transport |
Formula to calculate the distanza di sicurezza:
The distanza di sicurezza is not a fixed value, instead, it varies as per different situations as seen in the previous sections. In general, the minimum distanza di sicurezza corresponds to that of spazio di reazione and can be calculated with the below formula:
If the given speed is x kmph the its distanza di sicurezza(D) is calculated as :
D = (x / 36) * 10 meters
For example, if the vehicle’s driving speed is 50 kmph which implies 500/36 is 14 m (approx). So we can assume that if the speed of the vehicle increases at the rate of 50 kmph the distanza di sicurezza increases by 14 m. This means, for x = 100kmph => D = 28 m | if x = 150 => D = 42 m.