On Oregon roads, what color is used for pavement markings that separate traffic moving in opposite directions?
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A.
Yellow on rural roads, with white used on urban roads in Oregon.
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B.
White, with yellow used only inside posted no-passing zones.
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C.
Yellow, including the center line on two-way roads. Correct
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D.
White, the same color used to mark the right edge of travel lanes.
The answer is "Yellow, including the center line on two-way roads."
Yellow markings do two jobs on Oregon roads: they separate traffic moving in opposite directions (the center line), and they mark the left edge of one-way roads and ramps, two-way left turn lanes, and painted medians. White markings, by contrast, separate lanes going the same way and mark the right edge of travel lanes. Oregon follows the national standards, so the yellow/white rule holds on every road. D swaps the two colors, treating white as the centerline when the manual assigns that job to yellow.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Yellow on rural roads, with white used on urban roads in Oregon.
Oregon's pavement markings follow the national standards, so yellow always separates opposing traffic and white always separates same-direction lanes, regardless of whether the road is rural or urban. This answer invents a rural/urban split the manual does not make; the yellow/white rule applies uniformly on every road.
B. White, with yellow used only inside posted no-passing zones.
Yellow marks the centerline on every two-way road, not just no-passing zones. A broken yellow center line specifically indicates a two-way road where passing is allowed in both directions. This answer reduces yellow to a no-passing signal; the manual's rule is that yellow separates opposing directions whether or not passing is permitted.
D. White, the same color used to mark the right edge of travel lanes.
White markings separate lanes moving in the same direction and mark the right edge of travel lanes. Opposing traffic is separated by yellow. This answer swaps the two colors, treating white as the centerline color when the manual assigns white to same-direction lanes and the right edge of the road.
This question tests your knowledge of Road Markings in Oregon. Source: Oregon Driver Manual, "Pavement Markings," p.22..
Related Oregon questions
- You see a solid white line on the right edge of the lane you are driving in. What is its purpose? →
- You're driving on an Oregon road with a broken white line between your lane and the next. What does this line tell you? →
- What do white pavement markings separate on an Oregon road? →
- You see a center lane on an Oregon road bordered on both sides by a solid yellow outer line and a broken yellow inner line, with left-turn arrows painted in both directions. How may you use this lane? →
- A double solid yellow line runs down the center of the road. May you cross it to make a left turn into a side road? →
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