Traffic Signs and Signals
The signs and signals domain of the North Dakota knowledge test checks whether you can decode a sign quickly by its color and shape and then apply the rule it carries. The exam rarely asks you to name a sign; it asks what you must do when you meet one.
Decode by color
- Red - stop, yield, do not enter, wrong way. A prohibition.
- Yellow - warning; the road or condition changes ahead.
- Fluorescent yellow-green - school, pedestrian, bicycle crossings.
- Orange - work zone; workers and altered lanes.
- White - regulatory; the black text is a rule you must obey.
- Green guide, blue motorist services, brown recreation, pink incident management.
Decode by shape
Octagon = stop. Inverted triangle = yield. Pennant = no-passing zone begins. Diamond = warning. Round = railroad advance warning. Crossbuck = yield at the tracks, with a number plate below showing how many tracks remain. Pentagon = school zone.
Signals
A steady red means stop and stay stopped. A flashing red is a stop sign. A flashing yellow means proceed only with caution. A green arrow is protected; a flashing yellow arrow is permissive - you may turn left but must yield to oncoming traffic and to pedestrians in the crosswalk. North Dakota uses flashing yellow arrows at many intersections. Right on red is legal after a complete stop unless posted; so is left on red from a one-way street onto a one-way street. A police officer or flagger directing traffic overrides the signal every time.
Worked example
You face a flashing yellow left arrow with steady oncoming traffic. The correct action is to pull into the turn lane, wait for a safe gap, and complete the turn only after yielding - not to assume the arrow protects you. If traffic never clears, you wait; you do not block the intersection.
Traps that cost marks
Mistaking the pennant for a yield sign, reading a flashing yellow as a green light, ignoring a "when flashing" school-zone plate, obeying a signal instead of a directing officer, and forgetting that work-zone fines are doubled when workers are present.