What is commonly known as a traffic beacon?
- A barricade with a warning light
- A traffic light with green, yellow, and red lights
- A traffic officer with a whistle and flag
- A single flashing light hung over an intersection or placed over signs or on obstacles in the road ✓
Answer: D. A single flashing light hung over an intersection or placed over signs or on obstacles in the road
A traffic beacon is a single flashing light hung over an intersection, or placed over signs or on obstacles in the road.
Why this is the answer
The handbook gives this exact definition in its section on traffic lights and traffic beacons. The key detail is that it is one flashing light, and it can hang over an intersection or sit over signs and obstacles in the road. Matching that description to the choices leaves only the single flashing light, so the answer follows directly from the handbook wording rather than from any guess about warning devices.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. A barricade with a warning light — A barricade with a warning light is a physical barrier, while the handbook describes a beacon as a single flashing light, not a barricade.
- B. A traffic light with green, yellow, and red lights — A traffic light with green, yellow and red lights is a full signal head, not the single flashing light the handbook calls a beacon.
- C. A traffic officer with a whistle and flag — A traffic officer with a whistle and flag is a person directing traffic, which the handbook does not describe as a beacon.
Remember it
One light, flashing, up high or over a hazard — that is a beacon, not a full set of signals.
Official handbook: Official MTO Truck Handbook, Traffic lights – Traffic beacons