Blister tactile paving

Rows of raised domes warning of a crossing point.

Also known as: Tactile paving, Bumpy paving

AccessibilityRoad & transportStandard profile

Meanings

Blister paving is a grid of raised domes marking where a footway crosses a carriageway, readable through a shoe or a cane. Its pattern is deliberately different from the lozenge and corduroy patterns, which mean a platform edge and a hazard ahead.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Marks a controlled or uncontrolled crossing point in a footway, detectable underfoot as a grid of flat-topped domes.
Contexts: Road signage
Officially standardisedVerified fact
Belongs to a set of patterns whose meanings differ: lozenges warn of a railway platform edge and corduroy ribs of a general hazard such as steps.
Contexts: Road signage

Visual description

Paving covered in a regular pattern of small raised flat-topped dots, arranged in rows and columns.

Symmetry: radial
Orientation: upright
Colours: red, buff

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, 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 documented in encyclopedic references, 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.
Comparison of European road signs
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-23
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Traffic Signs Manual
Department for Transport (United Kingdom) · retrieved 2026-08-23
The British traffic sign manual, published openly. Britain signed the Vienna Convention but implements several signs differently, which the records name where relevant.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23

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Road signs across national systems

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Marks a controlled or uncontrolled crossing point in a footway, detectable underfoot as a grid of flat-topped domes.

Contexts: Road signage

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Belongs to a set of patterns whose meanings differ: lozenges warn of a railway platform edge and corduroy ribs of a general hazard such as steps.

Contexts: Road signage

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, 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 documented in encyclopedic references, 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.
Comparison of European road signs
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-23
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Traffic Signs Manual
Department for Transport (United Kingdom) · retrieved 2026-08-23
The British traffic sign manual, published openly. Britain signed the Vienna Convention but implements several signs differently, which the records name where relevant.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23