You see a sign in the shape of an octagon ahead, with no supplemental sign posted below it. What does the shape alone tell you to do?
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A.
Watch for a school crossing.
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B.
Merge with traffic from the right.
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C.
Come to a complete stop. Correct
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D.
Slow down and prepare to yield.
The answer is "Come to a complete stop."
The octagon is reserved for stop signs; no other traffic sign uses an eight-sided outline, which is why the shape alone identifies it even when the face is dirty, faded, or partly covered. Stop unless a supplemental sign below, such as Right Turn Permitted Without Stopping, covers the movement you are making. Yield signs are downward-pointing triangles, school zones use a pentagon, and merge warnings are yellow diamonds. Choice D snares drivers who reach for the yield triangle's 'reduce speed and yield right of way' meaning instead of the octagon's demand for a full stop.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Watch for a school crossing.
School zones use a five-sided pentagon, not an octagon. This answer treats the octagon as a school-zone shape; the manual reserves the octagon exclusively for the stop sign.
B. Merge with traffic from the right.
Merge warnings are yellow diamond-shaped warning signs, not octagons. This answer confuses a red regulatory octagon with a yellow diamond warning sign; the manual lists the octagon only under prohibitive regulatory signs meaning stop.
D. Slow down and prepare to yield.
The downward-pointing triangle is the yield sign, not the octagon. This answer confuses the octagon with the yield triangle, which the manual says means reduce speed and yield right of way, not come to a complete stop.
This question tests your knowledge of Road Signs in Oregon. Source: Oregon Driver Manual, "Signs and Traffic Signals: Regulatory Signs (Prohibitive)," p.7..
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