Reduced Speed Limit Ahead sign

Federal designation W3-5 in the MUTCD, the national standard every state signs to. Placed before a drop in speed limit that a driver would not expect, such as approaching a town, a sharp curve or a work zone transition.

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

Unlike the white regulatory speed limit sign, this yellow diamond is only a warning that a lower limit is coming, so the number is not yet the law at the sign itself. The new limit only becomes enforceable once you pass the white regulatory sign that follows, and that distinction is exactly what test writers like to probe.

The sign people confuse it with

Reduced Speed Limit Ahead gets mixed up with Speed Limit 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.

Reduced Speed Limit AheadThe speed limit is about to drop to the number shown

Speed LimitThe maximum legal speed in ideal conditions on this stretch of road

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