School Zone and Pedestrian Signs
School Zone and Pedestrian Signs
School and pedestrian signs protect people on foot, especially children. The exam tests whether you can recognize the school sign shape, obey school-zone speeds, and handle school buses and crosswalks correctly.
Core rules
- The school zone sign is a five-sided pentagon, usually fluorescent yellow-green with black symbols.
- School speed limits are often posted with times or with WHEN FLASHING; the lower limit applies during those times, not all day.
- A school crossing sign warns of a crossing where children may appear; slow down and scan between parked cars.
- When a school bus has flashing red lights and its stop arm extended, you must stop and remain stopped until the lights stop, unless you are on the opposite side of a divided highway with a median.
- At a marked crosswalk with no signal, yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.
- Crossing guards have authority to stop traffic; obey their signals.
Worked example
You approach a fluorescent yellow-green pentagon with a 25 MPH WHEN FLASHING plaque, and the yellow lights are flashing. Children are visible near the curb. The correct action is to slow to 25 mph or less and be ready to stop. The flashing lights activate the lower limit; because the sign says "when flashing," the 25 mph limit is not in force at other times, but the general duty to use care around children still applies.
Traps
The pentagon shape means school, but fluorescent yellow-green also appears on pedestrian and bicycle warning signs - read the symbol. Do not pass a stopped school bus with red lights flashing just because no child is visible, and do not treat a school-zone speed as advisory.