A 4-minute lesson from the Pennsylvania course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Signs come in three categories: regulatory, warning and guide. Most have a special shape and color, so you can recognize them before you can read them. Regulatory signs state the law; ignoring one can cost you a fine and points on your record.
Know the rule
Regulatory signs tell you what you must or must not do by law: speed limits, direction of traffic, turning and parking restrictions. Disobeying them can mean fines and points.
The STOP sign is the only 8-sided (octagon) sign on the highway. Stop completely and check for pedestrians and cross traffic before going. Slowing without a full stop is illegal.
At a crosswalk or white stop line, stop before the front of your vehicle reaches the first painted line. If you still can't see traffic, yield to pedestrians, then pull forward slowly past the line until you can see clearly.
At a FOUR-WAY STOP all traffic stops. The first vehicle to arrive goes first. If two arrive together, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right. Drivers facing each other may both proceed with caution, watching for turns.
YIELD signs are triangles (3-sided). Slow down, check traffic and give the right-of-way to pedestrians and approaching cross traffic; stop only when necessary. At STOP or YIELD you need a sufficient gap before going.
DO NOT ENTER signs stand at the start of one-way streets and ramps; WRONG WAY signs are farther along to catch drivers who turned in by mistake. ONE WAY means traffic moves only in the arrow's direction.
You reach a four-way stop at the same moment as a car on the cross street to your right. You are the driver on the left, so you yield and let that car go first.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
What shape is a STOP sign?
A triangle
A pentagon
An octagon (8 sides)
A diamond
Answer: An octagon (8 sides)
The STOP sign is the only octagon-shaped sign on the highway.
