What does a flashing yellow traffic light mean?
- Merging traffic
- Proceed with caution. ✓
- Pedestrian crossing
- Come to a full stop.
Answer: B. Proceed with caution.
A flashing yellow traffic light means you may proceed with caution.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's section on flashing signal lights says a flashing yellow light is placed at or just before dangerous intersections, and also to alert you to a warning sign like a school crossing or sharp curve. For that signal the handbook's instruction is simply to proceed with caution, so you keep going rather than stopping, but you stay alert to the hazard the light is marking.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Merging traffic — Nothing in the passages ties a flashing yellow light to merging traffic; it marks dangerous intersections and warning signs such as school crossings or sharp curves.
- C. Pedestrian crossing — The flashing yellow light is described as alerting you to a warning sign, and pedestrian signals are covered by separate rules, so it is not a pedestrian-crossing signal by itself.
- D. Come to a full stop. — A full stop belongs to the flashing red light, which the handbook says to treat like a stop sign, not to the flashing yellow.
Remember it
Yellow flash means roll on and stay sharp; red flash means stop first.