Yellow diagonal stripes inside a solid yellow border fill a rectangle between opposing-direction lanes. What does this require of you?
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A.
Use it as a two-way left-turn lane for turns to either side.
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B.
Do not drive into the striped area. Correct
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C.
Treat it as a passing zone for opposing traffic.
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D.
Stop inside the stripes before merging into the next lane.
The answer is "Do not drive into the striped area."
A rectangle outlined in solid yellow and filled with diagonal stripes is a painted median between opposing-direction lanes, and it is closed to travel. The trap is the two-way left-turn lane, which also sits between opposing traffic and uses yellow paint; a driver who learned that rule first carries it over. But a two-way left-turn lane is bounded by a solid outer yellow and a broken inner yellow with no diagonal fill, and it exists to be entered for turns. The diagonal stripes flag pavement not meant for any travel at all.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Use it as a two-way left-turn lane for turns to either side.
The striped neutral median is closed to travel, and a two-way left-turn lane carries a different marking: a solid outer yellow with a broken inner yellow line and no diagonal fill. This answer carries over the two-way left-turn lane rule because that marking also sits between opposing traffic and is painted in yellow.
C. Treat it as a passing zone for opposing traffic.
Passing is governed by the style of the center line, not by a diagonally striped rectangle, which marks pavement closed to travel entirely. This answer reads yellow paint as a passing cue and never looks past the color to what the diagonal fill is signaling.
D. Stop inside the stripes before merging into the next lane.
The striped rectangle is not travel pavement, so stopping inside it is not a permitted move either. Reads the painted median as a place to wait mid-move, borrowing the habit of pausing across a broken lane line before completing a lane change.
This question tests your knowledge of Road Markings on the roads of every US state . Source: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, marking 3B.25 (Yellow Diagonal Crosshatch (Neutral Median Area))..
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