Rest area sign
There is a place to pull over and rest ahead, which is the safe answer when you start to feel tired.
- The group at a distance
- Rectangular, often wide. Green for routes, blue for services.
- Does this group carry the law
- Mostly informational, but the road it announces carries rules.
- In the sign deck
- 3 questions ask about this sign
What to do when you see it
In the order you do it, from the moment the sign comes into view.
- Plan a stop before you feel tired rather than after.
- Pull well off the through road and park clear of heavy vehicles, which need the room.
- Take a break of real length: a few minutes out of the seat does more than slowing down does.
- If you are already fighting to stay awake, stop at the next one rather than pushing on to a better one.
Where you see it
On rural highways at intervals, on long approaches to and from the capital cities, and before long stretches with no services.
Across the states and territories
Every state and territory road authority provides rest areas on its highway network, and spacing varies enormously with the remoteness of the route. On outback routes in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory the gap between them can be very long, which is a reason to stop at the one you have reached rather than the one you were aiming for.
Tell it apart from these
Both signs at the same size, next to each other, with the one line that separates them. These are the pairs people mix up under time pressure.
- Rest areathis page110 km/h speed limit
These belong together: the roads posted at the highest limits are the ones where fatigue does the most damage.
110 km/h speed limit: You must not drive faster than 110 km/h, the highest limit posted on most Australian highways.
- Rest areathis pageHospital
Both are service signs, but only one of them is the answer to a fatigue question.
Hospital: A hospital is ahead in the direction shown.
How the knowledge tests use it
Fatigue questions are standard in every jurisdiction, and stopping to rest is the correct answer in effectively all of them.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
Blue service signs point to facilities for road users. A rest area is a place to stop off the road, and it may have very little beyond a table and a bin.
State and territory driver handbooks, driver fatigue
Try it in a question
The sign tests draw the artwork above the question and ask what it means, which is closer to the way you meet a sign on the road than reading a page about it. They are original questions written for this site rather than an agency's published bank.
More guide and service signs
Green for routes and directions, blue for services.