Share the Road sign

Federal designation W16-1P in the MUTCD, the national standard every state signs to. Common on narrow rural highways and older city streets that were never widened enough to fit a marked bike lane alongside traffic.

How to recognise it

This sign is a wide rectangle in fluorescent yellow green, reserved for schools, pedestrians and bicycles. 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 is a supplemental plaque rather than a stand alone sign, so it always rides underneath the diamond bicycle symbol instead of appearing on its own. Tests use it to check whether you know a cyclist can legally take the whole lane, which surprises drivers who expect bikes to hug the curb no matter what.

The sign people confuse it with

Share the Road gets mixed up with Bicycle Lane Ahead 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.

Share the RoadThis plaque is mounted below a bicycle warning sign on a road with no separate bike lane

Bicycle Lane AheadA marked lane reserved for bicycles begins just ahead, running alongside your travel lane

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