Shared path sign
People walking and people riding bicycles both use this path, so ride slowly and give way to those on foot.
- 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.
- Expect people on foot and people on bicycles in the same space, moving at very different speeds.
- If you are riding, keep left, slow down near pedestrians and give way to them.
- If you are driving, treat a driveway that crosses a shared path as a place where someone may appear from either direction with no warning.
Where you see it
Beside main roads, through parks and along foreshores and river paths, and at the ends of bridges and underpasses where a footpath and a cycle route merge.
Across the states and territories
Whether an adult may ride a bicycle on an ordinary footpath is set by each state and territory and is one of the larger differences between them. A shared path sign removes that ambiguity for the path it marks, but it says nothing about the footpath around the corner.
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.
- Shared paththis pagePedestrian crossing
A shared path sign marks a length of path. A pedestrian crossing sign marks a place where people cross the road and you must give way.
Pedestrian crossing: You must give way to any pedestrian on the crossing and be ready to stop before it.
- Shared paththis pagePedestrians ahead
The yellow diamond warns drivers about people on the road ahead. The blue shared path sign is an instruction to the people using the path.
Pedestrians ahead: People often cross the road here on foot, so slow down and look out for them.
How the knowledge tests use it
It shows up in questions about who gives way on a path, and in questions about driving across a path at a driveway.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
A shared path carries both groups on the same surface with no dividing line. A separated path shows the two symbols with a line between them instead.
Australian Road Rules rule 250, riding on a footpath or shared path
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.