Road Signs
Road Signs
Nebraska's knowledge test uses the MUTCD shapes and colors adopted by the Nebraska Department of Transportation, so sign questions rarely only ask you to read the words. They show a shape or color and expect the required action. Practice reading every sign from the outside in.
Shape and color carry the meaning
- Octagon, red: STOP. Full stop at the stop bar, crosswalk, or roadway edge, then proceed only when clear.
- Inverted triangle, red/white: YIELD. Slow, be ready to stop, give the right of way.
- Diamond, yellow: warning of a condition ahead - curve, deer, merge, intersection. Slow down; the underlying rule does not change.
- Pennant, yellow: no-passing zone, posted on the left side of your lane.
- Round yellow with an X: railroad advance warning; the crossbuck marks the tracks, and you must yield to trains.
- Rectangles: white/black is regulatory, green guidance, blue services, brown recreation, orange construction, fluorescent yellow-green school or pedestrian.
Regulatory versus warning
Regulatory signs state the law: speed limit, stop, one way, no turn. Warning signs advise. A yellow 35 MPH plaque under a curve sign is an advisory speed, not the legal maximum.
Worked example
In heavy rain you pass a curve warning sign with a 35 MPH plaque, then a white SPEED LIMIT 50 sign. The white sign sets the legal maximum at 50; the plaque is the speed engineered for the curve. Be near 35 before the curve, lower in rain, because the basic speed law still requires a speed reasonable for conditions.
Traps
Mixing up advisory and regulatory speeds; reading a yellow warning sign as permission to speed up; missing that the no-passing pennant sits on the left; treating a crossbuck as yield-only when a train is visible; defending the posted limit in fog or ice.