Dead-end road
Information
- Sign code
- L8
- Category
- Information
- Traffic signs
- Dead-end road.
Sign L8 marks a dead end. You can drive into the street, but you cannot get through at the far end and will have to come back the same way. The sign forbids nothing, it only warns you there is no way through.
What to do at sign L8
Only enter the street if you need to be there. Further along you can usually only turn around, and not every dead end has room for that.
How to recognise the sign
L8 is a blue square sign with a white T-shaped symbol: a straight line ending against a crossbar. Blue and square means information.
Sometimes the crossbar is broken. The road is then a dead end for cars, but cyclists and pedestrians can still get through.
Dead end for cars, open for cyclists
The broken-bar variant is common in residential areas, where a street is closed to through traffic but still connects to a cycle path.
That distinction matters for the theory exam: the sign says something about who can and cannot get through.
Where you will see it
In residential areas, on industrial estates, and at streets closed off by construction or redevelopment.
Difference from L9, advance dead end sign
L9 stands before the junction and tells you which of the side roads is a dead end. L8 stands at the street itself. With L9 you can still avoid the dead end.
L9, advance dead end signFrequently asked questions
- May you drive into a dead end street?
- Yes. The sign only warns that there is no way through, it does not forbid anything.
- What does a broken line in the symbol mean?
- That the road is a dead end for cars, but cyclists and pedestrians can still get through.
- What is the difference between L8 and L9?
- L8 stands at the dead end street itself, L9 stands before it and points out which side road is the dead end.
Practise this sign for your theory exam
Dead-end road belongs to the Information category. In the CBR theory exam a traffic sign is almost never asked on its own: you are shown a situation and have to know what you may or must do in it. In the free sign trainer you practise the signs by category, with the explanation shown right after every answer.
Practise traffic signs for free
