Regulatory Signs: The Must-Do Signs
Regulatory Signs
Regulatory signs are the must-do signs of Michigan roads. Most are white rectangles with black legends; prohibitions add a red circle and slash, and the two signs that override everything else - STOP and YIELD - have their own shapes so you can identify them from behind. The exam asks you to read a sign's instruction and choose the correct driver action, so learn signs as commands rather than pictures.
Core rules
- STOP (red octagon): a complete stop at the stop bar, then the crosswalk, then the edge of the roadway, whichever you reach first. Rolling stops are a fail.
- YIELD (red-and-white triangle): slow down and be ready to stop; stop only if traffic is not clear.
- Right turn on red: allowed in Michigan after a full stop unless a NO TURN ON RED plaque is posted.
- Left turn on red: in Michigan, permitted only from a one-way street onto another one-way street, after stopping, unless prohibited.
- Lane and direction signs: KEEP RIGHT, ONE WAY, DO NOT ENTER and WRONG WAY work as a set. DO NOT ENTER faces you at a ramp or one-way entrance; WRONG WAY faces traffic already traveling the wrong direction.
- Michigan left: where a boulevard replaces left turns with a median U-turn, expect NO LEFT TURN at the intersection and U-turn signs at the median crossover.
- Speed limit signs are regulatory: the posted number is the legal maximum in good conditions, not a target.
Worked example
You are stopped at a red light on a two-way street and want to turn left into a one-way street running to your left. Waiting for the green is correct. Michigan's left-on-red exception applies only from a one-way street onto another one-way street, so a two-way approach does not qualify no matter how empty the road looks.
Traps
Treating YIELD as an optional suggestion instead of a readiness to stop. Missing a NO TURN ON RED plaque mounted beside the signal. Confusing a yellow advisory plaque with a white regulatory speed sign. Assuming a green light always gives a protected left - a circular green does not.