caminos en españa

The Ma-19, the motorway from Palma to Llucmajor. This picture was taken at Junction 8, the turn-off for Palma Airport. Most motorways in Mallorca are two lanes wide in either direction.

Motorway junction sign on the Ma-19. Junctions on motorways and expressways are denoted by the logo at the top of the signs, with the junction number in the top-right corner. As is common in Europe, junction numbers are allocated by distance, the number being the distance of the nearest kilometre post. The grey panel for "Son Oma" denotes an Industrial Park.

Overhead gantry sign on the Ma-19. Whilst motorway panels are always in blue, like in the UK, exits onto non-motorway routes appear on white panels.

A typical overhead roundabout looking onto a grade-separated dual carriageway. The road in the picture is the Ma-15, just to the east of Palma.

The Ma-15 heading away from Palma and out towards Manacor. This is a high-quality, mainly grade-separated expressway. I say mainly, as every so often, as you are cruising at 70mph, you suddenly end up encountering a huge roundabout! It makes it look like cost-cutting was implemented in places!

Another view of the Ma-15. Hard shoulders are commonplace on the expressways as well as the motorways. Concrete barriers are utilised on all new-build roads, with shrubbery and trees used where the central reservation is wider.

An overhead gantry sign for junction 29. The symbols are for a service area.

A long range view of the Ma-15, heading off into the hillside and beyond.

The westbound carriageway of the Ma-15. The hard shoulder is narrower in many places than when compared with British motorways.

The westbound carriageway of the Ma-15. The slip road is merging into the main carriageway at this point. As mentioned above, note the shrubbery in the central reserve.

An overhead sign for a junction - in some cases, only one panel is used, just indicating the exit destinations.

Another view of the Ma-15 expressway.

Another view of the Ma-15 expressway.

A sign for one of the roundabout junctions on the Ma-15. The Spanish don't use "reduce speed now" signs, instead they gradually reduce the maximum permitted speed on the approaches to junctions and the ends of slip roads - typically from 100 down to 70, then 50, then 40 (if applicable). 

The Ma-15.

The start of a No Overtaking zone on the Ma-4020.

The Ma-4023 heading out north from Porto Cristo towards Son Severa. The road here has been realigned to make it straighter and wider, with part of the old road converted into a cycle lane (the red lane on the right).

The Ma-4023 on the edge of Porto Cristo.

The Ma-4025 heading into the east coast resort of S'Illot.

This is a typical left-turn filter lane, with a rather chunky left-pointing arrow. All at-grade left-turns on major routes are provided in this way in order to improve traffic flows and reduce the risk of a high-speed accident.

This is a typical right-turn lane - even these have a small slip-road type facility to allow exiting traffic to slow down safely and away from the mainline traffic flow.

The Ma-4023 heading north along the east coast.

The Ma-4023 heading south along the east coast past the resort of Sa Coma.

A close-up view of a right-turn exit slip lane.

A close-up view of right-turn exit slip and merge-in lanes.

A right-turn exit lane, located in the centre of the roadway.

A view towards the Ma-4023, with the exit lanes from that road merging together. 

This is the Ma-12, heading into Alcudia from Arta. The hatched section is quite a long one, running for the length of the Port d'Alcudia resort - about three miles in all, and comes complete with regular pedestrian refuge islands.

A little further out of Port d'Alcudia here, the Ma-12 narrows down a little. The single line down the middle is the same as double white lines in the UK - no overtaking. Most "no overtaking" areas use a solid white line, rather than double lines. Cycle lanes are common in this area due to the high volume of cycling tourists in this area. 

A sharp bend in the road, utilising green bollards to separate the traffic flows. 

The same sharp bend, with an exit lane for traffic turning right into the side road.

An urban dual carriageway, this one being the Ma-4025 heading into the resort of S'Illot.

A typical urban crossroads.

With this crossroads, you can see that a roundabout was once located here, due to the large road area and curves in the pavement. 

A typical roundabout. In Spain, roundabouts feature signs similar to our "mini roundabout" signs. Blank "Give Way" style signs are used on all approaches to the roundabout, with painted "Give Way" triangles painted onto the road.

Dual carriageway turning lanes, allowing traffic to turn onto or off the main road (or perform a u-turn).

An urban dual carriageway route. This one is the main route into the resort of Sa Coma.

A typical urban route, this one being in Sa Coma.

Stop lines and markings, Sa Coma.

Lane direction arrows.

Like in Britain, speed humps are becoming increasingly common. But unlike in Britain, they are not everywhere! Generally, humps are found in low speed (for example, 20 kph) areas and on some residential crossing points - this one being where a principal footpath crosses the road.

Some more speed humps, but in this case, the smaller bee-stripe type humps are used.

At the other end of the No Overtaking zone, another pair of signs adorn the roadside. Unlike in the UK, where the red-bordered signs appear with an "end" plate underneath, the Spanish use this type of sign - two grey cars with a series of diagonal lines over them.

Here is a close-up of an "end of no overtaking zone" sign.

This sign simply means "end of restrictions" - they are normally used where a reduced speed zone and no overtaking zone end at the same place, rather than having to use two separate signs. However, in some areas, these were used instead of the two "end of no overtaking zone" signs.

These types of signs are particularly common across Europe. The first marks the edge of the town you are entering, and thus urban speed regulations now apply. Unlike in Britain, there are no maximum speed signs when entering an urban area, except where a different speed to the normal 40kph applies.The bottom sign denotes the driver is leaving town, and that the urban speed restrictions now end.

In Spain, just like in other European countries such as France, direction signs always feature each individual destination on a separate panel. Most panels displaying Palma are shown with a red border, instead of the usual black surround. Provincial capitals are generally always shown with a red border, although some older signs still show Palma with a black border.

A view of the same signpost but showing all of the panels. Some signs can be very tall indeed in order to take into consideration all of the towns that can be reached via a particular road! Normally, signs will show the nearest town, the regional town, and the provincial capital are shown on signposts. The road number is always shown on a coloured panel at the top of the signpost.

The Spanish are very good at signposting places of local interest or importance. Sites of historical importance and tourist attractions are signposted on panels with a pink background.

This is an older type of direction sign, which is slowly being made obsolete as signposts are being replaced. Beaches are always depicted on a brown background. The old system placed tourist sites on a yellow background, but so were post offices amongst other things! As seen in the last photo, the yellow panels are being replaced with different coloured panels which group different types of places together.

Schools and police stations are also well signposted. The new system places these facilities on white panels, but pictograms are used as well to denote that these are local facilities.

Churches and other religious buildings are signposted on purple panels.

In some towns, non-standard signposting is used, such as in the township of Manacor (like in Porto Cristo, as shown above). Sports and leisure facilities are shown on orange panels. The only problem is that in urban areas, you very rarely get advanced direction signs, so you only get notification of where to go once you've hit the junction.

Now this is a proper road sign, and a rarity in an urban area. Major roundabouts often see absolutely huge signs with wording that can be seen a mile away! This one is a little smaller due to the lack of space. Even the petrol station is signed with its own exit! Road numbers are hardly ever shown though, even for motorways - these are only shown on the roundabout at each individual exit.

Some new roundabout signs are shown like this, with the mini-roundabout type sign shown next to the direction arrow. Dark purple panels are used in the Manacor township to denote the caves (Drach and Hams), although some older signs are in brown (or a purpley-brown colour where they have faded a little). In many towns, however, this type of signage is rare or not used at all!

Road numbers are always shown on its own coloured panel at the top of the signpost. These two are the same road, the first is one of the last remaining panels showing the old road number. There are three colours used - blue for motorways (of course!), whilst orange denotes a road in the "main autonomic network" (basically a Balearic primary route), whilst all other roads are yellow.

The older number system didn't use orange, so virtually all roads were in yellow, However, there are some green panels with "C-roads" (such as in Alcudia), which are the older Catalan principal routes, however, these have generally been replaced with the orange routes.

Colour coding for roads is the responsibility of each autonomous province, so they vary from area to area, leading to a mish-mash of differing schemes across Spain. Attempts to create a uniform system are proposed, but it could be a long while before it is in place across the country!

Oh, and all roads in Mallorca are "Ma" numbered, regardless of status - even motorways are numbered in this way.

A route confirmation and distance sign - note the old style road number manages to live on here too.

Here are a couple of distance markers. All classified roads have these markers, and are sited at 1km intervals. The large number is the distance from the start of the road, with the road number above it. The road number and top of the marker are painted in the classification colour of that particular road.

However, on the motorway and expressway network, a different style of marker is used. It is a little confusing here, as the marker is in blue - the colour of the motorways - yet the Ma-15 is an expressway, not a motorway!

Traffic lights are yellow in Spain. Here is the same signal, displaying green and red.

The pedestrian crossing signal and the control panel to activate the crossing.

This signal is overhead as it each signal head controls a separate lane. An arrow panel is displayed above the signal head to denote which lane it refers to (only the green light has an arrow). The single light on the right flashes with a yellow arrow when the middle signal is on green. The yellow arrow advises turning motorists that they may have to give way to crossing pedestrians as they have priority over vehicles on the crossing point.

A simple "no parking" sign - rather than using lots of small yellow panels, these signs are used at either end of the no parking zone. In some areas, the kerb is painted yellow.

Some more "no parking" signs, but with various restrictions and exceptions.

The top sign denotes "reserved for disabled persons", the second is "both sides" and the bottom sign denotes that parking is only prohibited on Saturdays between 14:00 and 22:00 due to a market. The Spanish don't generally use separate panels to display additional information - they just put it on the sign!

This no parking sign in Cala Bona denotes that parking is not allowed during February to July - a separate restriction is in place on the opposite side of the road for the remaining six months of the year. It's a little unusual to do this; surely it would have been easier to ban parking on one side of the road for the whole year, and allow parking on the other?

A typical crossing point. These are very, very common, and are found at all junctions and wherever a public footpath (as shown here on the left) either heads away from the road or crosses it. They are also found at regular intervals in shopping areas too.

All crossing points feature a blue sign, as shown here on the right, on either side of the road, plus a stop line. However, it is not compulsory for drivers to stop and allow pedestrians to cross, yet many do so out of courtesy. Pedestrians must always give way.

In Britain, these signs are used to indicate a mini-roundabout, yet in Spain, these are found on all roundabouts - they don't use the simple arrow sign, and chevron signs are only used at larger roundabouts.

A maximum speed sign. Newer ones use the "Transport" font, although the alignment isn't always brilliant!

This is an older maximum speed sign, which uses a taller lettering. The numbering is also embossed into the sign (you can probably make out where the numbers are raised from the surface of the sign panel).

This is a warning sign advising motorists that the 40kph speed limit is monitored by radar within the urban area.

A no through road sign. Note that the "T" symbol is smaller than in the UK version, when compared with the area of the sign the "T" covers.

A "Stop" sign. These appear at virtually every junction, the main exceptions being somewhat obvious - traffic lights and roundabouts.

A standard roundabout sign, with larger arrow-heads being used in comparison to elongated chevron style arrows that are used in the UK.

Yellow-backed signs are becoming more common in Spain, but are normally only used in urban areas and where the hazard indicated isn't completely noticeable. In this case, the roundabout is partially obscured by vegetation in the central reservation. Yellow-backed signs always have "Atenció" above the sign.

A speed hump sign.

A "No U-turns" sign.

A "keep right" sign, with the arrow in the typically continental style.

Another "keep right" sign, this time on the approach to a roundabout. Note the use of chevron signs on this roundabout - as mentioned previously, they are only generally used on larger roundabouts.

A "no entry" and "turn left" sign. The no entry restriction is there as the road concerned is a bus bay for a school.

A warning sign advising motorists to "Give Way" 150 metres ahead, in this case for a roundabout. "Stop" will appear on the plate if a stop sign is ahead, but nothing is used for a Give Way sign.

An unusual and rare sign, advising motorists they have reached the end of the one way street, but can turn in either direction. This sign is rather dirty, as it used to be surrounded by low trees - however when the trees were removed, the authorities forgot to clean the sign!

This sign rather oddly means "no lorries or buses". The Spanish seem to have to put a horizontal bar through the middle, so it's meaning isn't necessarily all that obvious!

The top sign is easy enough - bend to the left ahead. However, as the bend concerned is rather sharp, we get a blue "50" sign too. This simply means "advisory speed limit 50 kph".

An interesting use of the "no motor vehicles" sign - just like the "no parking" signs shown previously, exceptions are shown within the sign. There is no "buses only" sign in Spain, so this variant is used instead - the wording simply means "except buses".

Another example of the "no motor vehicles" sign, but with no exceptions this time. The plate beneath warns motorists that this is a tow-away zone.

A width restriction sign in Alcudia. Mind you the road itself was a little narrow anyway, given the buildings are from medieval times!

Out in the more rural areas, roads commonly have crawler lanes in hilly areas, more so than in the UK it seems! This sign advises motorists of the crawler lane, and that the lane on the left has a minimum speed limit of 70kph.

The entrance to this underground car park in Porto Cristo is adorned by these signs. We have a "no pedestrians", "maximum speed 20kph" and "maximum height 2.2 metres" signs on display, but the most unusual sign is the blue one to the right - it means "dipped headlights must be used". I don't think I have ever seen this used in the UK!

Another sign not used in the UK is this "Pedestrians only" sign.

A variation on the traditional Parking sign, this particular sign advises motorists that this is a "Pay and Display" parking area.

This sign provides motorists with further information about the pay-and-display parking.

It advises of a 150 minute limit on parking, and that the restriction is in place from 10:00 until 18:00 between 1 March and 31 October. The wording in the blue area advises that tickets must be shown and that checks are made.

A parking meter!

The type of parking area is colour coded in Spain. Standard free parking bays are indicated by white markings, whilst pay-and-display spaces are shown through the use of blue markings.

An older style sign directing to a church. These are normally confined more to urban areas, particularly pedestrian zones.

A couple of old signs that have so far escaped the replacement programme! "Cada El Paso" translates as "each step", so I don't know what that has to do with Give Way! However, this phrasing does not appear on more modern Give Way signs.

This sign warns of a pedestrian area, with numerous restrictions in place: maximum speed 10kph, no vehicles over 7.5 tonnes, and no stopping.

This is a pedestrian finger post sign advising of the best walking routes to places around Porto Cristo.

A pair of chevron signs. These appear here due to a T-junction with a sharp bend in the middle of it.

A close-up of a chevron sign. Chevron signs in Spain are typically always two chevrons long.

A relatively new feature here is a dedicated crossing point for cyclists, installed as part of the Porto Cristo to S'Illot cycle route project.

Yellow zig-zag markings are used in areas where only certain vehicles are permitted to stop. They are mostly used to keep bus stops clear, as well as taxi ranks, yet they are sometimes used in other areas, keeping spaces clear for ambulances, police cars or other important vehicles.

This road bridge carries traffic into Porto Cristo when approaching from the south and west. It was built to carry traffic over the harbour, allowing the old road to be turned into a pedestrian walking route.

A town centre side street in Cala Millor. The street has been redesigned to give pedestrians better priority, and motorists even have to give way to pedestrians at crossing points.

The same side street in Cala Millor, looking in the opposite direction.

The Porto Cristo to S'Illot cycle way, alongside the Ma-4023. You can tell the road has been realigned here, as beneath the red paint, you can make out the old road markings! In the centre of the picture is a direction arrow, and further up the cycleway (although not clear in this picture) are the dashed lines indicating the edge of the road and start of the slip lane.