Traffic Signals and Pavement Markings
Traffic Signals and Pavement Markings
Nebraska signal and marking questions test operational rules: what each signal color requires, when a turn on red is legal, and which lines you may cross. Nebraska follows the national MUTCD for signals and markings, so the logic transfers to roads anywhere.
Signal logic
- Steady red: full stop. In Nebraska you may turn right after stopping and yielding unless a sign prohibits it; you may turn left on red only from a one-way street onto another one-way street.
- Steady yellow: stop if you can do so safely. It announces the change; it is not a command to accelerate.
- Steady green: proceed when the intersection is clear, yielding to pedestrians and to vehicles still clearing the intersection.
- Green arrow: protected movement in that direction.
- Flashing yellow: proceed with caution.
- Flashing red: stop, then proceed as at a stop sign.
- Dark or failed signal: treat the intersection as an all-way stop.
Markings
Yellow lines separate traffic moving in opposite directions; white lines separate lanes going the same way or mark the road edge. A broken line may be crossed when safe; a solid line should not be. Double yellow with the solid line on your side means no passing for you. A wide white stop bar marks where you stop, and white crosswalk lines mark an area you must not block.
Worked example
On a two-lane road the center line is double yellow - solid on your side, broken on the other. A tractor crawls ahead at 15 mph. You may not pass, even though the oncoming lane looks clear for a quarter mile, because the solid line on your side forbids crossing into it. Wait for the broken line to appear on your side.
Traps
Assuming every red light allows a right turn; treating flashing yellow as a stop; crossing a solid white edge line to pass on the shoulder; stopping on top of the stop bar or crosswalk; ignoring a red X over a lane.