Traffic Signs, Signals and Road Markings
This domain tests whether you can read the road's three languages - signs, signals and pavement markings - and act on them correctly at an intersection rather than just reciting shapes.
Read shape and colour before the words
- Red octagon - STOP. A complete stop behind the stop line or crosswalk, even when the road looks empty.
- Inverted red-and-white triangle - YIELD. Slow down, be ready to stop, and give way to cross traffic and pedestrians.
- White rectangle with black legend - regulatory: speed limits, turn and parking rules. A red circle with a slash means do not.
- Yellow diamond - warning of a hazard ahead (curve, hill, slippery surface). Orange diamond means construction or a temporary condition.
- Green guide signs give routes and distances, blue gives services, brown marks points of interest.
- Fluorescent yellow-green flags school zones and pedestrian or cyclist crossings.
Signals
Solid red means stop. You may turn right after stopping unless a sign forbids it, and you may turn left on red only from a one-way street onto another one-way street. Solid amber means stop unless you are too close to stop safely; accelerating to beat the light is a mark-losing answer. Flashing red works like a stop sign: stop, then proceed when clear. Flashing amber means proceed with caution, and you hold the right of way over traffic facing a flashing red. A green arrow protects your movement; a plain green light still requires you to yield to pedestrians and to oncoming traffic when turning left.
Markings
Yellow lines separate traffic moving in opposite directions; white lines separate traffic moving the same way. Broken lines may be crossed when safe, solid lines should not be. Double solid yellow means no passing either way. Stop lines, crosswalk bars and lane arrows are legal instructions.
Worked example. You are behind a slow truck on a two-lane highway with a double solid yellow line and a long clear view ahead. There is no legal pass: the solid line on your side forbids crossing it regardless of how much oncoming distance you can see.
Traps. Treating yield as optional, stopping unnecessarily at a flashing amber, assuming green means go without checking the crosswalk, and mistaking a solid white edge line for permission to change lanes.