Roundabout sign

A blue disc with three curved arrows chasing each other in a ring, marking a roundabout ahead.

Also known as: Traffic circle sign, Three arrows in a circle

Road & transportStandard profile

Meanings

The roundabout sign shows three arrows circling a common centre, indicating that traffic must travel around the island in the direction shown. The direction of the arrows reverses between left- and right-hand-drive countries.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Requires traffic to pass around the central island in the direction the arrows show.
Contracting parties to the 1968 Vienna Convention · Contexts: Road signage
Common modern usageVerified fact
Reverses direction between jurisdictions: the arrows run clockwise where traffic drives on the left and anticlockwise where it drives on the right, so the sign is not a single fixed image.
Contexts: Road signage

Visual description

A blue disc carrying three white curved arrows arranged around a common centre, each following the tail of the next so that they form a broken ring.

Symmetry: radial
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

Roundabout
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 (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.
Traffic sign
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

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Road signs and what their shapes mean

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Requires traffic to pass around the central island in the direction the arrows show.

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

Common modern usageVerified fact

Reverses direction between jurisdictions: the arrows run clockwise where traffic drives on the left and anticlockwise where it drives on the right, so the sign is not a single fixed image.

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

Roundabout
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 (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.
Traffic sign
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