No left turn sign
You must not turn left at this intersection.
- Group
- Regulatory signs
- The group at a distance
- Mostly round, or a rectangular plate. Stop is the one octagon in the whole group and give way the one triangle. Usually white with a red ring or bar and a black legend. A few, like the shared path sign, are white on blue.
- Does this group carry the law
- Enforceable. Disobeying one is an offence in itself.
- 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.
- Do not turn left here, whether or not a green arrow appears.
- Continue straight ahead and turn at the next street where the movement is allowed.
- Read any plate under the sign, because the ban is sometimes limited to certain hours or to certain vehicles.
Where you see it
At intersections where a left turn would cut across a bus lane, a tram line or a busy pedestrian crossing, and where the receiving street is one way against you.
Across the states and territories
The face is national. Time plates are the part that varies: peak hour bans are common in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and rarer in smaller centres, and the hours themselves are set locally rather than nationally.
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.
- No left turnthis pageNo right turn
Same face, mirrored arrow. Read the arrow rather than the shape, because the two look almost identical at speed.
No right turn: You must not turn right at this intersection.
- No left turnthis pageNo U turn
The U turn version has a curled arrow that doubles back. The turn versions have a single bend.
No U turn: You must not make a U turn at this intersection or along this length of road.
How the knowledge tests use it
Questions usually check that a time plate limits the ban to the hours shown, and that outside those hours the turn is legal.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
The arrow shows the movement and the red ring with the bar bans it. Here that movement is a left turn.
State and territory driver handbooks, turning and U turns
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 regulatory signs
Mostly white with red or black, and usually round or rectangular.