How Well Do You Know Road Signs?
Know your Road Signs is Critical to Safe Driving
Think back to the last time you really thought about road signs. It was probably when you took your permit or drivers license test, right? Aside from stop, yield, merging, school crossing, no U-turns, and a few other signs, you might not completely understand the meaning behind every road sign you pass on your daily commute.
Don't Know All The Signs? You're Not Alone
When you take a written test at the DMV, you must score 80 percent or higher to pass the test. If you go the Internet and take an online test, which tests your knowledge of road signs, most sites also consider 80 percent or better to be passing.
One source reported that most online test takers believed it to be "ok" and safe to drive the maximum posted speed limit during inclement weather. The same source also reported that more than half of test takers were unable to properly identify an advanced warning sign for a school. 35 percent were unable to identify a "lane ends" sign.
As a driver who knows some of the road signs (but maybe not all), you may wonder how important it is to be completely knowledgeable.
Are There Consequences To Not Knowing Road Signs?
You know how to use a stop sign and can follow directions on the highway. Is it really a big deal if you don't all of the road signs? Not knowing all the road signs is potentially dangerous and can put you at greater risk of being involved in an accident.
Think about sharing the road with a motorist that doesn't know what stop sign means. While the stop sign is one of the most basic and commonly known signs, we can't assume that every motorist knows what it symbolizes or even follows it.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), each year, nearly one-third (or about 700,000) of all intersection crashes in the U.S. are at intersections which have stop signs. Given the high rate of incidents, it's safe to assume that some drivers don't see, understand, or adhere to stop signs.
How Well Do You Know Your Signs?
Depending on where you live, you may be more likely to see some road signs than others. For example, if you live in a rural area you may be familiar with the sign that depicts a farmer on a tractor. Someone who lives in an urban area may not understand the meaning behind the sign.
Even if you feel like you know most (if not all) of the road signs in your area, it doesn't hurt to brush up on a few more, especially if you're planning a road trip or travel for work.
Want to test how well you pay attention to signs? "Cards of Distractibility" is a free online game that simulates distracted driving while road signs change on the screen. At the end of the game, you are asked to properly identify all the signs you saw while driving. Want to see how many signs you actually know? There are plenty of practice tests online, give one of them a try.