Road Signs: Shape, Color, and Required Action
Road Signs
The Road Signs domain tests whether you can identify a sign by shape, color, and symbol and then take the correct action. Georgia's knowledge test favors signs that look alike or carry a legal duty, not just sign names.
Shape and color decode the sign
- Octagon, red background, white letters: STOP. A triangle pointing down means YIELD.
- Vertical rectangle: regulatory (speed limit, turn, parking, HOV). Horizontal rectangle: guide.
- Yellow diamond: warning. Orange diamond/rectangle: work zone. Green: guide. Blue: services. Brown: recreation/cultural. Round: railroad advance. Pennant: no-passing zone. Pentagon: school.
- A yellow speed plaque under a warning sign is advisory, not the legal limit.
Regulatory signs create duties
- STOP: stop at the stop line, then crosswalk, then edge of roadway; a rolling stop fails.
- YIELD: slow, be ready to stop, and give right of way; you need not stop if clear but must yield.
- DO NOT ENTER and WRONG WAY mark the wrong side of a divided road or one-way. A one-way sign with an arrow shows the direction of travel.
- A red circle with a slash prohibits the symbol inside; a green arrow is a permitted movement.
Warning signs and work zones
Yellow diamonds warn of curves, intersections, pedestrians, school crossings, deer, slippery roads, signals ahead, and lane changes. Orange signs mark construction, flaggers, detours, and lane closures; obey flaggers as you would an officer. A “ROAD WORK AHEAD” sign is your cue to slow before the taper, not after.
Worked example
You are driving at night and see a yellow diamond with a right-curve arrow and a yellow “25 mph” plaque beneath it. What must you do?
Reasoning: the diamond tells you a right curve is ahead, so the hazard is a change in alignment. The plaque is an advisory speed chosen for the curve under good conditions. You should slow to 25 mph or less before the curve, because entering too fast is the common failure. The plaque is not a regulatory speed limit, but exceeding it in poor weather or with limited sight distance can still be unsafe and can support a careless-driving charge. After the curve, resume the posted limit.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating YIELD as “stop only if a car is visible”; yield requires giving way to traffic already in or approaching the intersection.
- Reading a warning sign as permission or as a legal limit.
- Confusing a crossbuck (yield at railroad) with a regulatory stop sign.
- Stopping at a crosswalk instead of the stop line when both are present.