Learn the shapes, then play
US signs follow one federal manual, the MUTCD, so a shape or color means the same thing in every state. Read this key once before you start and kids can call half the squares from shape alone.
- Octagon: stop. It is the only eight-sided sign.
- Downward triangle: yield.
- Yellow diamond: a warning about the road ahead, such as a curve, a merge or a signal.
- Pentagon: a school zone or school crossing.
- Round yellow sign: a railroad crossing ahead.
- Pennant (a sideways triangle): the start of a no-passing zone, posted on the left side of the road.
- Colors: orange for work zones, brown for parks and recreation, blue for services such as gas, food and hospitals, green for directions and exits.
Where each part of the card fills
Town streets fill the rule squares fast: stop, one way, no parking, pedestrian crossing. Interstate exit ramps add Do Not Enter and Wrong Way, posted to turn back anyone driving up a ramp the wrong way. The open interstate brings route shields, exit number tabs, blue gas-food-lodging signs and the occasional weigh station.
The rare squares are regional. Runaway truck ramps sit on long mountain grades, such as I-70 west of Denver. Tsunami hazard zone signs line the Pacific coast, and hurricane evacuation route signs lead inland from the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Chain requirement signs belong to mountain passes in winter. Expect those squares only when the route passes them.
For a spoken game about the same signs, the road trip trivia deck asks why stop signs have eight sides and what the pennant means.
Every square in this set
Common: you’ll see these most hours
Stop sign (red octagon), Yield sign (triangle), Speed limit sign, Yellow diamond curve sign, Black-and-yellow chevrons, Yellow advisory mph plaque, Red-white-blue Interstate, White US route shield, State route marker, Green exit number tab, Merge sign, Lane ends sign, Signal ahead sign, Do Not Enter sign, Wrong Way sign, One Way arrow sign, No parking sign, Railroad crossbuck (X), Round yellow RR sign, Blue gas-food-lodging sign, Brown recreation sign, Orange Road Work Ahead, Pedestrian crossing sign, Adopt-a-Highway sign.
Uncommon: a few per drive
School sign (pentagon), Pennant No Passing sign, Deer crossing sign, Stop ahead sign, Divided highway sign, Truck on a hill sign, Falling rocks sign, Slippery when wet sign, Low clearance sign, Weigh station sign, Blue hospital H sign, No U-turn sign, Roundabout ahead sign, Bicycle warning sign, Flagger ahead sign, Historical marker.
Rare: the ones that end a blackout
Runaway truck ramp, Cattle crossing sign, Moose or elk crossing sign, Hurricane evacuation route, Tsunami hazard zone sign, Snow chains required sign.