Road Signs in The United Kingdom - Northern Ireland, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories

Northern Ireland, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories

The designs of road signs in Great Britain as prescribed in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD) apply specifically to England, Scotland and Wales. These regulations do not extend to other territories that come under the jurisdiction of the Crown. Road signs in Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are under the jurisdiction of their local legislatures. Although the policy in these territories is to align their road signs with those prescribed in the TSRGD, small variations may be seen.

Traffic signs in Northern Ireland are prescribed by The Traffic Signs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 and are administered by the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Tynwald (Isle of Man Parliament), through its Traffic Signs (Application) Regulations 2003 explicitly included Part I of the TSRGD into Manx law, but not the other parts of that legislation. One of the consequences of this partial incorporation is that while in England and Wales speed limit signs must appear on both sides of a carriageway, this is not necessary in the Isle of Man.

Road signs in Gibraltar and the British Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus are controlled by the Ministry of Defence. In the SBA road signs are modelled on Cypriot road signs rather than British Road signs including the use of metric speed limits while in Gibraltar the signs are similar in appearance to the UK, but in line with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, road signs use metric units and traffic drives on the right. However, height and width clearance warning and regulatory signs are both in imperial and metric.

Road signs in Hong Kong also use a modified version of the British model, including the Transport font. This policy has continued post- the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to China. Directional signs include place-names in Chinese characters which have been designed to match the Transport font, as well as English-language text.

Road signs are modelled on U.S. road signs in the British Virgin Islands, whilst signs in other overseas territories such as the Falkland Islands and Cayman Islands are modelled on UK signs.