Driver's License Test Prep
US Road Signs Road Markings

Traffic on the far side of the intersection has stopped as you reach a white KEEP CLEAR legend painted across your lane. What does the marking require of you?

On dark charcoal pavement, a white rectangular outline frames the word KEEP in tall white block capitals on the upper line. Below it, the word CLEAR appears in the same tall white capitals but runs wider than the frame, so its outer letters reach the edges of the image and cross over the box's lower border.
  1. A.
    Wait behind the marking until you can get across without stopping in it. Correct
  2. B.
    Stop inside the marked area to hold your position in the traffic queue.
  3. C.
    Pull forward into the marked area to leave the intersection behind you clear.
  4. D.
    Enter the marked area only after the cross-street signal turns red.
The Why

The answer is "Wait behind the marking until you can get across without stopping in it."

The KEEP CLEAR legend holds the marked area open for cross traffic and vehicles entering the intersection, so when the road ahead is stopped and you cannot clear the marking you wait behind it. The trap is the choice that stops inside the box; a driver who sees painted words on the road defaults to reading them as a stop line, because that is how most pavement legends work, but this one marks the exact place the driver must not stop.

Why the others miss

The traps in the wrong answers

B. Stop inside the marked area to hold your position in the traffic queue.

The marking is a keep-out zone, not a stop box; halting inside it would block the cross traffic the legend is there to protect. This answer treats the painted words as a stop line, applying the habit that most pavement legends mark the spot where a driver should halt.

C. Pull forward into the marked area to leave the intersection behind you clear.

Advancing into the area does the opposite of what the legend demands, because the marked space itself is what must stay empty when the road ahead is stopped. This answer applies the general do-not-block-the-intersection habit and rolls forward to keep the intersection behind clear, without recognizing the KEEP CLEAR box as the very space that must itself stay empty.

D. Enter the marked area only after the cross-street signal turns red.

The rule ties to whether you can clear the marking, not to any phase on the cross street, so a driver watching the other signal misses the point of the legend. This answer reads the paint as tied to the opposing signal phase, a habit carried over from thinking of intersections in terms of light color rather than whether the space beyond is open.

The Rule

This question tests your knowledge of Road Markings on the roads of every US state . Source: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, marking 3B.26 (KEEP CLEAR Pavement Legend)..

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