Added lane

What it means

This sign tells you that a new traffic lane joins the roadway ahead from the side shown, and that no merging manoeuvre is required: the joining lane becomes a full additional lane rather than forcing its traffic into yours. It is the informational counterpart to the merge warning, and it changes the correct behaviour significantly, because merging sign logic would have you open gaps, while an added lane means both streams simply continue side by side. The sign is common where on-ramps are long enough to be a continuous lane or where a road widens at a junction.

How it gets misread

Drivers in the through lane sometimes read it as a merge and swerve or slow unnecessarily, creating exactly the conflict the sign is designed to prevent. Drivers in the joining lane sometimes fail to realise the lane ends further along and will require a merge later.

What to do

Hold your lane and your speed; no gap-making is needed at the point where the lane is added. Check your mirror so you know which vehicles have joined beside you, and look further downstream for the sign or painted taper that will eventually end the added lane, because the merge obligation returns there for someone.

More warning signs

• Advisory curve speed →
• Bridge ices before road →

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