11.3 Road Words, Arrows and Look Left / Look Right

Road words, arrows and Look Left / Look Right

Lines tell you where the lane is. Regulation 179 adds words and arrows on the road surface. This section is independent study of that regulation as printed in the GPF Theoretical Programme, read with the direction-marking purpose already listed in 178(1)(b). It is not a Police booklet and not a claim of official approval.

Quick Answer: Look Left or Look Right may be used to warn pedestrians in one-way streets: letters 12 inches in depth, strokes 2 inches wide. SLOW, STOP or YIELD may be used at approaches to junctions, corners and similar places in letters 4 feet deep, strokes not less than 4 nor more than 5 inches. Where traffic may go straight, left or right, course words are 4 feet deep with strokes 4 inches wide, and direction may be further indicated by arrows with shafts 4 inches wide.

Look Left / Look Right: pedestrians, one-way streets, small letters

Regulation 179(1): the words “Look Left” or “Look Right” in letters 12 inches in depth, the strokes of which are 2 inches in width, may be used on road surfaces for the purpose of warning pedestrians in one-way streets.

Four facts that items will swap:

1. The audience is pedestrians, not a substitute Highway Code for drivers.
2. The place is a one-way street, not every two-way East Coast road.
3. Letter depth is 12 inches, not 4 feet.
4. Stroke width is 2 inches, not 4 inches.

Guyana is left-hand traffic. On a two-way road a pedestrian still looks for traffic in both directions, with the usual near-side / off-side picture. On a one-way Georgetown street the danger can come from one direction only. The surface word tells the walker which way to look: Look Left or Look Right, matching the way the one-way stream actually runs. A driver still keeps left, still uses mirrors, and still yields at a crossing. The 12-inch letters are not a “drivers may ignore pedestrians” mark.

Do not put Look Left / Look Right on the vehicular signal lenses. Chapter 9 already taught that the vehicle red lens carries STOP in black and no other lettering. Pedestrian WALK / DON’T WALK live on the pedestrian signal face. Regulation 179(1) lives on the road surface at a one-way crossing.

Do not enlarge these words to 4 feet. Four-foot letters belong to SLOW / STOP / YIELD and to junction course words below. Mixing the two size families is the classic trap: 12 inches and a 2-inch stroke for the pedestrian one-way warning; 4 feet for the driver junction words.

Junction course words and 4-inch arrow shafts

Regulation 179(2): at the approaches to road junctions where traffic may proceed straight ahead or turn to the left or to the right, appropriate words indicating the course to be followed by vehicles travelling along any portion of a road may be used on road surfaces in letters 4 feet in depth, the strokes of which are 4 inches in width, and the direction which traffic is to take may be further indicated by arrows with shafts 4 inches in width.

This is a driver mark. It sits on the approach where streams split: ahead, near-side left, off-side right. Typical painted words name the movement for that slice of carriageway. The arrow is the further indication, not a replacement that lets you skip the words, and not a licence to take a movement the words forbid.

Sizes to keep unmixed:

• Course letters: 4 feet deep, strokes 4 inches wide.
• Arrow shafts: 4 inches wide.
• These are not the 12-inch / 2-inch pedestrian pair.

Left-hand traffic still decides which physical lane is left and which is right. A left-course arrow sends you toward the near side. A right-course arrow sends you toward the off side. An ahead arrow is not a left filter. Code rule 50 still forbids filtering left at Police or light signals without a definite signal. Painted LEFT on your lane, or a left arrow shaft, is the surface version of that definite course — for that lane, not for a wander across white lane lines that regulation 178(10) still wants you to treat as a single-lane path unless a change is seen to be safe.

Regulation 178(1)(b) already allowed lines to show the course or direction to be taken. 179(2) is the word-and-arrow form of the same job. Together they mark which slice of an East Bank junction, a New Amsterdam approach, a Timehri airport-area road, or a Bartica town junction belongs to which movement.

SLOW, STOP, YIELD: four-foot letters on the approach

Regulation 179(3): the words “SLOW” or “STOP” or “YIELD” in letters 4 feet in depth and of not less than 4 nor more than 5 inches in width may be used on road surfaces at the approach to road junctions, corners and at similar places where drivers of vehicles are liable not to see other warning signs.

This is the large-letter family again, with a stroke window of 4–5 inches rather than the fixed 4-inch stroke of the course words in (2). The place is an approach where you might miss the upright plate: a corner, a junction, a similar surprise. The words do not retire Chapter 6. STOP on the road still means you must stop, even if the major road looks empty, then look right, left, right again and give way to major-road traffic. SLOW still means slow and be ready to stop. YIELD still means give way. The paint is there because drivers are liable not to see the other warning signs — not because the signs have stopped mattering.

Do not shrink SLOW / STOP / YIELD to 12 inches. That smaller size is Look Left / Look Right. Do not treat the three words as pedestrian-only. Regulation 179(3) is aimed at drivers of vehicles. Do not claim YIELD is never painted in Guyana; the booklet names it beside SLOW and STOP.

Upright Give Way (inverted triangle) and STOP (octagon) remain Chapter 12 plates. The surface word is a second chance on the carriageway, in yellow or white paint or metal like every other regulation 178–179 surface sign.

How the words sit with refuges, lanes and named roads

While you read STOP or an ahead arrow, regulation 178(7) still forbids crossing a yellow-bordered area. A street refuge marked in yellow is not a shortcut onto the word YIELD. White lane lines still demand single-lane driving unless a change is seen to be safe. A transverse 5-inch stop line still marks the place beyond which you must not proceed when a constable, a sign, or a light signal requires a halt, and 178(9) still forbids going beyond that bar in a way likely to cause danger to another driver.

Country candidates still need this cluster. The Road Traffic Code reminds you that you may be asked about signs, lights, and markings even if you live far from a Georgetown one-way. The Soesdyke–Linden Highway, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, and the Canje Bridge are speed-and-care locations in other chapters; if an approach is painted with SLOW or with course arrows, regulation 179 still supplies the letter heights and the 4-inch shaft.

Letter-height table for the electronic paper

Independent OpenExamPrep teaching of road words and arrows follows printed regulation 179(1)–(3). It does not mix 12-inch pedestrian letters with 4-foot driver words, and it does not treat a one-way Look Right as a permission to skip looking at a two-way junction.