Department of Information

21st March, 2010

THE HIGHWAY CODE

In Malta, traffic signs are based on the United Nations Organisation Protocol and are in international use.

Basically, the code consists of three categories of signs - Warning, Regulatory and Informative, each category having its characteristic shape, colour and format, with the message of the sign condensed pictorially into a symbol. In appropriate cases, the message may be supplemented, or its applicability defined, by means of a short inscription on a small plate appended to the traffic sign.

Slight local variations, as long as they are consonant with the spirit of the above code, are allowed, and some of the traffic signs in Malta do in fact contain such variation. Traffic signs are generally reflectorised so as to show up under headlights at night.

While Warning and Informative Signs are meant for the help and guidance of motorists, Regulatory signs impose definite obligations. Regulatory signs may be either

•Prohibitory, i.e. forbidding certain manoeuvres, or
•Mandatory, i.e. imposing certain manoeuvres.

The prohibition may be either immediate, in which case it applies to a single point or contingency and its applicability terminates immediately, or continuous when its applicability is in force for a stretch of road or area and carries on until it is lifted by another sign to this effect.