FAQ & User Guide
What is the HK Traffic Sign Map?
It is a free, interactive web map of Hong Kong’s road rules and traffic signs. It draws where speed limits, no-stopping restrictions, bus lanes and vehicle bans apply, which roads minibuses cannot reach and where each taxi colour may serve, and shows every installed sign: catalogued signs as their real pictogram, everything else as a colour-coded dot you can click to inspect.
Where does the sign data come from?
From the Hong Kong Transport Department’s open datasets on data.gov.hk: “Traffic Aids Drawings (2nd generation)” for the signs, and “Road Network (2nd generation)” for the road rules and the direction each sign faces. Chinese sign names come from the department’s Road Users’ Code. The basemap is © OpenStreetMap contributors.
How current is the data?
The Transport Department refreshes the source dataset roughly monthly. This site is rebuilt from that data, so it reflects the most recent published release rather than live, real-time changes. Each road-rule popup says how old its reading is: the day the road network data was fetched, or, for taxi areas and expressways, the date of the legal source they were checked against.
How do I find and inspect a sign?
Zoom into any street. Signs spread apart as you zoom in. Click a sign or dot to open its details; if several signs overlap, click again on the same spot to cycle through each one.
What do the colours and categories mean?
Signs are grouped into their Index-Plan classes — Regulatory, Warning, Informatory, Supplementary and Temporary — plus Tourist and uncatalogued Other signs. Each class has its own colour in the legend and can be toggled on or off independently.
Why do some signs show as a coloured dot instead of a picture?
A sign is drawn as its real pictogram once you zoom in past its level-of-detail threshold and if it exists in the pictogram catalogue. Until then, or for not-yet-catalogued signs, it stays a coloured dot so it is never hidden.
Which way do the signs face?
Each sign is turned to the direction it faces, worked out from the direction of travel on the road beside its pole, and drawn as if laid flat on the ground — so it reads upright from the side the drivers it addresses approach. Signs on the same post hang in one column; a pole with signs on both sides shows a column for each side. No published source records which way a sign faces, so treat the facing as an estimate, especially at junctions.
Can I filter which signs are shown?
Yes. The Signs tab toggles any sign class on or off, or hides them all at once, and its “By sign ID” switch searches signs by number or meaning and shows only the ones you pick, each with the rest of its signpost. The panel can be folded away to give the map more room.
What are the coloured lines on the roads?
The Road rules tab, which the panel opens on, draws where a rule applies, straight from the Transport Department’s road network data: speed limits, bus-only lanes, vehicle prohibitions, no-stopping restrictions and pedestrian zones. Click a line for its details, including hours and days, and use “Show signs for this rule” to see the signs that announce it. The default 50 km/h limit has no line of its own.
What are “Minibus no-go roads”?
Roads that public light buses may not use. Dashed lines are the routes the Transport Department prohibits them from; the wider shaded band marks roads that are cut off because every way in is closed by those prohibitions or by turn bans. The cut-off band is worked out by this site from the department’s own rules rather than published by it. Green minibuses running under route permits are not covered.
Which taxi colour can serve a street?
Turn on the taxi row and pick a colour with its chips. Green New Territories taxis get their permitted operating area, the designated routes the Transport Department draws on its boundary map — the thirteen it numbers and the unnumbered links that join them — and the fringe facilities they may serve: the airport, Disneyland, the Shenzhen Bay port, several stations, two hospitals and Sha Tin Racecourse. Blue Lantau taxis get Lantau and Chek Lap Kok. Red urban taxis serve almost everywhere, so that chip draws only the exception: Tung Chung Road and the roads of South Lantau. Unlike every other row, this one is not read off the road network data — no such dataset exists — so it is compiled here from Schedule 7 to Cap. 374E, which lists the permitted roads street by street, and each line says so when you click it. Where the Schedule permits only the stretch of a road between two junctions, the line stops at those junctions; a taxi rank inside a station’s transport interchange is not drawn, because the Schedule lists roads, not interchanges.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The map is responsive, supports touch pan/zoom, and can centre on your location if you grant location permission.
Is this an official government website?
No. It is an independent, informational project that visualises public open data. It is not affiliated with the Transport Department and must not be used for navigation or as a legal authority on road traffic regulations. Some readings are worked out here rather than published by the department, and the data can lag behind changes on the road, so drivers should always follow the signs on the road and check the Transport Department’s latest traffic notices. It is provided “as is”, with no warranty that it is accurate or up to date, and the author accepts no liability for any consequence of relying on it.
Is it free to use?
Yes, it is free. The underlying sign data is provided under the data.gov.hk Terms and Conditions; the basemap is OpenStreetMap.