Slow moving vehicle

In the United States and Canada, an individual vehicle, a vehicle which is being towed, or caravans of vehicles which are unable to reach a maximum speed of 40 kilometres an hour (25 miles per hour) are required by law to display a special reflective emblem sign at the rear of the vehicle or vehicles, or on the rear vehicle in the caravan. The sign is only allowed to be placed where it is visible from the sides, front, or the rear of the vehicle.

The sign appears essentially as the image above, as a "cut" triangle consisting of a triangle with the corners cut off in red, as a border surrounding an orange uncut triangle in the center, with the edge separating the orange and red being black or white. The United States Department of Transportation as well as various Canadian provinces have established regulations that dictate the minimum required size of the sign, and grant exemptions for displaying the sign for certain religious groups having an objection to displaying a sign, which are operating horse-drawn carriages or wagons on public highways, provided they use an alternative reflective marking on the rear of the wagon or carriage. Vehicles which are merely crossing a road, such as a tractor going from one field directly to another at a 90-degree angle from the road, are not required to display the sign.

The sign must not be displayed so it is visible to a road from an object which is not a vehicle (like a mailbox, billboard, or structure), and vehicles not on a public road must remove or hide the sign if it can be seen from the road.

The slow-moving vehicle sign was developed based on a series of tests for shape recognition and color visibility by Kenneth Harkness of the Department of Agricultural Engineering^[3] at Ohio State University, with funding from the Automotive Safety Foundation.^[4][5][6]

In the United States, the sign is typically available from hardware, vehicle supply, and construction supply stores for about US$20.

In the United States, slow-moving Vehicle Emblem Requirements are defined in the 29 CFR 1910 Occupational Safety and Health Administration .145(d)(10) regulation. They are based on the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) Emblem for Identifying Slow-Moving Vehicles, ASAE R276, 1967, or ASAE S276.2 (ANSI B114.1-1971).

In the British Columbia province of Canada, the device is named a "Slow Moving Vehicle Warning Device". It is standardized as C.S.A. Standard D 198-1967 by the Canadian Standards Association according to the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations.^[7]

In Europe, there is no one single "Slow moving vehicle" concept, but concepts depending on various national or international laws.

Most European countries apply the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, but this convention on road traffic does not require vehicles not reaching a specific speed to carry a specific mark. Indeed, Vienna convention just defines such as the two red reflex-reflectors for trailers, and prohibits some class of roads or some kind to some moving vehicles not able by design to reach a specific speed defined by domestic legislation, for instance on motorways.^[8]

However, numerous European countries also apply Unece regulations. Regulation Unece number 69 address rear marking plates for slow-moving vehicles (by construction) and their trailers.^[9] Those marks have a shape like the north-American one.

Unece regulation

Regulation 69 applies to rear marking plates for vehicles of category M (transport of people), N (transport of good), O (transport of trailer) and T (tractors) and for mobile machinery, which, by construction, cannot move faster than 40 km/h.^[10]

العلامة الموجودة في الجزء الخلفي من المركبة هي "لوحة تحديد خلفية للمركبات ذات الاستخدام المحدود"، وهي لوحة مثلثة الشكل ذات زوايا مقطوعة بنمط مميز ومغطاة بمواد أو أجهزة عاكسة للضوء وفلورية (الفئة 1)؛ أو بمواد أو أجهزة عاكسة للضوء فقط (الفئة 2). ^{[ 11 ]}

دخلت اللائحة رقم 69 حيز التنفيذ في 15 مايو 1987 في هولندا وبلجيكا، وفي 19 سبتمبر 1987 في الدنمارك.

يسري هذا القانون في المملكة المتحدة منذ 27 أبريل 1990.

يسري هذا القانون في ألمانيا منذ 8 أكتوبر 1993.

يسري هذا القرار في روسيا منذ 8 أبريل 1996.

ينطبق هذا في الاتحاد الأوروبي منذ 24 مارس 1998، بما في ذلك في فرنسا وإيطاليا.

في عام 2020، تم تطبيق اللائحة في الاتحاد الأوروبي ودوله الأعضاء الـ 27 و19 دولة أخرى من دول اللجنة الاقتصادية لأوروبا التابعة لليونسكو، أي 46 دولة.