Bus lane sign

A sign bearing a bus silhouette, reserving a lane for buses.

Also known as: Bus sign

Road & transportStandard profile

Meanings

The bus lane sign reserves a lane to buses and, depending on the jurisdiction, to taxis and cycles as well. Which other vehicles may use it is stated locally rather than by the treaty, so the sign alone does not settle the question.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Reserves the lane or road it marks to buses and, where a supplementary plate says so, to other specified classes of vehicle.
Contracting parties to the 1968 Vienna Convention · Contexts: Road signage
Common modern usageVerified fact
Does not by itself say whether taxis, cycles or motorcycles may use the lane: that is set nationally or locally and stated on an accompanying plate, so the bus pictogram alone is not a complete instruction.
Contexts: Road signage

Visual description

A blue panel carrying the white silhouette of a bus seen from the front or the side, with windows and wheels indicated in outline.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright
Colours: blue, white

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Vienna, 8 November 1968), consolidated text
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
A treaty binding only on its contracting parties. It prescribes sign categories, shapes and colours and permits national variants within them; it does not describe the signage of non-signatory states, notably the United States. Cited for category and design prescription, never for the traffic law of a particular country.
Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.
Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968 and the European Agreement supplementing it
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
The publisher's own landing page for the consolidated instruments. Used for the status and scope of the Convention and its supplementing agreement rather than for the text of any provision.
Bus lane
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.

Last reviewed 2026-07-31

Part of

Road signs and what their shapes mean

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Reserves the lane or road it marks to buses and, where a supplementary plate says so, to other specified classes of vehicle.

Contracting parties to the 1968 Vienna Convention · Contexts: Road signage

Common modern usageVerified fact

Does not by itself say whether taxis, cycles or motorcycles may use the lane: that is set nationally or locally and stated on an accompanying plate, so the bus pictogram alone is not a complete instruction.

Contexts: Road signage

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Vienna, 8 November 1968), consolidated text
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
A treaty binding only on its contracting parties. It prescribes sign categories, shapes and colours and permits national variants within them; it does not describe the signage of non-signatory states, notably the United States. Cited for category and design prescription, never for the traffic law of a particular country.
Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.
Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968 and the European Agreement supplementing it
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
The publisher's own landing page for the consolidated instruments. Used for the status and scope of the Convention and its supplementing agreement rather than for the text of any provision.
Bus lane
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.

Last reviewed 2026-07-31