Tetris Road Signs Explained: The Message Behind the Blocks

Unless you’re a traffic engineer, or freshly done studying for your learner’s permit, you might not have the meaning of every street sign memorized. Sure, you’ll remember the most important ones, like yield and stop, and the ones you regularly encounter on your commute. But what about when you come across new ones, like a Tetris-shaped road sign? Before we get into exactly what the Tetris road sign symbols mean, let’s explore what its color and shape (a yellow diamond) indicate.

Road Sign Colors

According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), there are several factors that go into the design of a road sign. Different colored signs convey different types of information.

• Red signs generally mean “stop” or “no.”
• Black and white signs, like speed limit signs, often give “regulatory information.”
• Orange and pink signs are relegated to construction; these are your “road work ahead” and “construction zone” signs. Blue, green and brown signs give “helpful information,” like pointing out lodgings, interchanges, or “areas of historical interest.”
• Yellow signs (like the Tetris-shaped road signs) convey some kind of warning about the road ahead.

Road Sign Shapes

Just like color plays a role in the meaning of a sign, shape is important, too. Stop signs are supposed to be the only octagon signs on the road so that you can quickly recognize the shape as well as the color and apply the brakes. Pentagons are used for school crossings and triangles for yield signs. Most other signs are squares or rectangles, so you’ll have to rely on the color and symbol to know exactly what they convey. Diamonds (like the Tetris-shaped signs) are for warnings.

What Does the Tetris Road Sign Mean?

Finally, we get to the symbols. Not all road signs have lettering on them, which is true in the case of Tetris-shaped road signs. They’re almost always yellow diamonds, which means they’re a warning sign.

Tetris road signs are warning you about an unusual intersection coming up ahead. The exact shape of the “Tetris piece” is meant to represent the road you’re on. So a cross or plus-sign-shaped symbol means a four-way intersection is coming ahead, while a symbol with three legs is a three-way intersection.

There’s also a special case: the T-shaped symbol. If your Tetris-shaped road signs look like this, it means you’re approaching a T-intersection. You cannot continue straight because the road ends, so you’ll have to turn either left or right.

Once in a while, you may run into a special case, maybe the road you’re on is unusually shaped, and the city has commissioned a custom sign. But running into those is rare, and with the information here, you can decipher the meaning if you need to.

Source

Signs, Signals, and Parking Pavements, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

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