Guidelines for directional signage on motorways

Basic data
title	Guidelines for directional signage on motorways
abbreviation	RWBA
number	329/2
scope of application	Signposting on motorways
Latest issue	2000
Previous edition	1982

The guidelines for directional signage on motorways ( RWBA ) are a set of technical rules that apply in Germany and regulate the design of directional signage on federal motorways . The signposts for other roads is in the Guidelines for signposting outside motorways treated (RWB).

The currently valid version is the RWBA 2000. It was introduced on December 28, 2000 with the General Circular Road Construction No. 26/2000 by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing . The document is distributed by the Research Association for Roads and Transport (FGSV).

content

The RWBA is divided into fifteen chapters. The first section formulates general requirements for the signposting. The second section describes the structure of the signage. In further sections, the objectives, the principles, special cases and the individual elements are considered.

Chapter seven deals with the signage of junctions . Sections eight and nine deal with rest areas . The following is about the signage of diversions, police stations and emergency telephones. While chapter 13 deals with the pre-direction and the direction to the motorway (at junctions), the marking of the start and end of motorways is dealt with in chapter 14. The last chapter deals with the other signs. The annex to the guidelines deals with rule plans and provides further information on the size and dimensions of the signage.

deviation

The Hessian State Office for Roads and Transport has developed its own guidelines for pioneering signage on motorways (LWBA), which defines its own standards. A separate standard is also defined on the freeways in Bavaria. These guidelines are based on the information provided by the RWBA or specify some points more precisely. The last version is from January 2007. Hessian overhead signposts in particular differ from the rest of Germany in terms of sign size, arrow arrangement and font alignment. The pictures show some differences using the example of the overhead signpost.

In Hesse, only short arrows are shown on the sign boards with centered left-aligned writing. No destinations are shown next to each other, the arrows are centered over the respective lane. The width of the sign corresponds to the width of the lane, the height of the sign is based on four destinations plus arrow or dimensions (even if fewer destinations are signposted).
Mixed arrow shapes are shown by default. The writing is centered and the destination information can be next to each other. The direction of the arrow can vary, the width and height of the shield are variable.