Guide and Informational Signs
Guide and Informational Signs
Guide signs give destination, distance, route, and service information rather than commands. Test items usually ask you to classify a sign (guide vs. service vs. recreation) or to choose an action, such as picking the correct lane for an exit.
Reading guide signs
- Green signs carry destinations, distances, exits, and route guidance: overhead lane-assignment signs, "EXIT ONLY" panels, distance-to-city signs, and exit direction signs with a number and an arrow.
- Blue signs list motorist services - gas, food, lodging, hospital, phone, rest area - often paired with "NEXT EXIT" or a distance.
- Brown signs point to recreation and cultural sites: parks, historic districts, trails, museums.
- Mile markers give your location on interstates and major routes; they are what a dispatcher needs if you call for help, and many exit numbers match mile markers.
- Route identification uses shields: the red-and-blue interstate shield, the white U.S. route shield, and the state route marker.
Worked example
You are in the right lane and the overhead green sign above it reads "EXIT ONLY" with a down arrow, while the lane beside it continues straight. This is a lane-assignment guide sign; if you want to stay on the highway, change lanes now, because the right lane will leave it.
Traps
Braking hard at a green guide sign as though it were a warning; hunting for a hospital on a brown recreation sign; confusing a "NEXT EXIT" service panel with the exit-direction sign itself; and assuming an exit number is also a street address number.