Guide and Informational Signs
Guide and informational signs help you navigate and find services; they usually do not impose a legal duty. The exam tests whether you can separate the color families and pull out destination, distance, and exit information quickly.
Color families
- Green: destinations, distances, exits, and route guidance on freeways and major roads.
- Blue: motorist services such as gas, food, lodging, hospitals, and rest areas.
- Brown: recreation and cultural areas such as parks, historic sites, and campgrounds.
- White-on-green exit signs give the exit number, usually tied to the milepost in Idaho, plus the destination and lane.
Reading an exit sign
- The top line or a small tab gives the exit number; the destination follows; a distance such as 1 MILE means the exit is ahead, not at the sign.
- EXIT ONLY with a down arrow means that lane must exit; if you are in it, you cannot continue straight.
- A route marker identifies the road: red-and-blue Interstate shield, white US route shield, state route marker. Route numbers on guide signs match the shields you see on the road.
Worked example
A green sign reads EXIT 71 / US 20 / 1 MILE above a lane arrow pointing right. You are 1 mile from Exit 71, the exit leads to US 20, and the arrow shows the lane to use. If the same sign said EXIT ONLY, that lane would leave the freeway and you would need to change lanes to continue.
Traps
Confusing brown recreation signs with green destination signs; reading 1 MILE as at this sign; ignoring an EXIT ONLY arrow until the gore area; assuming exit numbers are sequential rather than milepost-based.