School Bus Stop Ahead sign
Warns that a school bus regularly loads or unloads children just ahead. Slow down and be ready to stop well back if its red lights start flashing.
Federal designation S3-1 in the MUTCD, the national standard every state signs to. Placed a few hundred feet before a known, regular bus stop on a rural or residential road, not necessarily anywhere near a school building.
How to recognise it
This sign is a diamond stood on its point in fluorescent yellow green, reserved for schools, pedestrians and bicycles. The five sided pentagon is reserved for schools, and the fluorescent yellow green colour is used only for schools, pedestrians and bicycles. Speed limits here are usually enforced far more aggressively than elsewhere.
What the test wants you to know
This sign only warns you, the flashing lights and extended stop arm on the bus itself are the actual legal trigger to stop. A common wrong answer treats this warning sign as the stopping point, when it is really just advance notice that a stop may be coming.
The sign people confuse it with
School Bus Stop Ahead gets mixed up with School Zone 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.
School Bus Stop AheadWarns that a school bus regularly loads or unloads children just aheadPractise 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.
End School Zone
School Speed Limit When Flashing