Dip sign

Federal designation W8-2 in the MUTCD, the national standard every state signs to. Common on rural roads that cross drainage channels or old creek beds without a bridge, where the pavement itself follows the ground down and back up.

How to recognise it

This sign is a diamond stood on its point in yellow, the warning colour. Yellow diamonds telling you what the road is about to do. They are advisory rather than mandatory, but ignoring them is how people end up in ditches and how examiners end up failing you.

What the test wants you to know

This word sign means the drop is severe enough to affect steering and suspension at normal speed, which is why the advisory plate underneath often reads lower than what you would expect for a plain bump. It also hides whatever is on the far side, so covering the brake as you approach is the habit examiners are checking for.

The sign people confuse it with

Dip gets mixed up with Bump more than any other pairing in this category. Put them side by side and the difference is obvious, which is exactly why it is worth doing once rather than meeting them cold in the exam.

DipThe roadway drops sharply and rises again just ahead, deeper than an ordinary bump

BumpA raised section of pavement is ahead

Practise it

Reading about a sign is not the same as recognising it in half a second with an examiner watching. Every state road signs test on this site shows the sign and asks you to name it, then shows four faces and asks you to pick the right one.

Take a road signs test