Warning Signs
Warning Signs
Warning signs announce a condition ahead and tell you how to prepare; they never order a stop or set a legal limit by themselves. Expect recognition items (shape and color), symbol items, and judgment items about the correct response.
What the yellow diamond does
- Yellow diamond = warning. Black symbol, placed in advance of the hazard so you can react at the posted speed.
- Common New Mexico hazards: curves and reverse curves, winding road, deer and cattle (open range), falling rocks, crosswinds, blowing dust, steep grades, lane ends, two-way traffic, STOP AHEAD, and SIGNAL AHEAD.
- Railroad advance warning is the round yellow sign with an "RR" and an X - the only circular warning sign. It is followed by the white crossbuck at the crossing itself, where you must yield to trains.
- Plaques below the diamond modify it: a yellow advisory speed ("25 MPH"), a distance ("NEXT 3 MILES"), or a condition ("WHEN WET").
Worked example
You meet a yellow diamond showing a truck on a downgrade with an "8%" plaque. This warns of a steep descent; it is not a speed limit and not a truck route. The correct response is to slow before the grade and select a lower gear so you are not riding the brakes.
Traps
Mixing up yellow (warning) with orange (work zone); reading an advisory plaque as a legal maximum; braking only once you are already in the curve; and assuming a deer sign means deer appear only after dark, when dawn and dusk are actually the peak times.