A steady yellow X lights up above your lane on a Texas roadway. According to the manual, what does this signal tell you to do?
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A.
Prepare to safely vacate the lane over which the signal is located. Correct
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B.
Stop before the intersection because the light is about to turn red.
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C.
You may continue driving in the lane; a green arrow will follow.
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D.
Do not drive in this lane at any time under any circumstances.
The answer is "Prepare to safely vacate the lane over which the signal is located."
A steady yellow X above your lane warns that a lane-control change is coming and tells you to move out of that lane safely while there is still time. Choice B is the trap: a driver who sees 'yellow' reaches for the intersection rule they use every day, but overhead lane-control signals govern the lane itself, not the intersection ahead.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Stop before the intersection because the light is about to turn red.
Applies the intersection yellow-light rule to an overhead lane-control signal, which regulates the lane rather than the intersection. This answer carries the meaning of a yellow traffic light at an intersection over to the overhead lane signal, though the two devices control different things.
C. You may continue driving in the lane; a green arrow will follow.
A steady downward green arrow, not a steady yellow X, is the lane-use signal that permits driving in the lane; the yellow X orders you to clear it before the change takes effect. This answer assumes the three lane-use signals cycle green, yellow, red like a traffic light, so the yellow X still lets you drive until the red X takes over.
D. Do not drive in this lane at any time under any circumstances.
A red X, not a yellow X, closes the lane; a steady yellow X tells you to move out because the lane-control status is changing. This answer reads every overhead X as a lane closure, missing that color splits the rule: a red X shuts the lane, while a yellow X orders you to get out before it does.
This question tests your knowledge of Traffic Lights in Texas. Source: Texas Driver Manual, "Chapter 5: Signals, Signs, and Markers (Lane-use control signals)," p.32..
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