Traffic signs and signals
Sign and signal items check whether you can identify a sign by shape and colour alone, and whether you know which signals give priority and which merely warn. New Brunswick uses the standard North American sign system with metric legends.
Shape and colour
- Octagon: stop. Inverted triangle: yield. Diamond: warning. Pentagon: school zone or crossing. Circle: railway advance warning. X-shaped crossbuck: railway crossing.
- Red prohibits, yellow warns, orange marks construction, green guides, blue marks services, and black-on-white rectangles are regulatory (speed limits, turning rules).
- Fluorescent yellow-green marks school and pedestrian warnings.
Signals
A solid red means a complete stop. In New Brunswick you may turn right on red after stopping unless a sign forbids it, and you may turn left from a one-way street onto another one-way street after stopping. A flashing red is a stop sign: stop, then proceed when safe. Flashing amber means proceed with caution - you gain no priority. A green arrow protects that movement; a plain green light means go only if the intersection is clear. If the light changes while you are inside the intersection, clear it. A flashing hand means do not start crossing.
Worked example
The signal ahead flashes amber for you while cross traffic faces flashing red. Reasoning: amber warns rather than authorizes, so you may proceed without stopping but must yield to pedestrians and to anyone already in the intersection. The cross traffic must come to a full stop. If every direction flashes red, the intersection becomes an all-way stop and the first-to-arrive rule applies.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a yield sign as optional; you must slow and be ready to stop.
- Assuming a yellow diamond sets a speed limit - it warns of a hazard, though an advisory speed plate may be attached.
- Ignoring orange construction signs: reduced limits are enforceable and fines are higher when workers are present.
- Treating a green light as permission to enter an intersection that is blocked.