What does the divided highway ends sign mean?

This sign appears ahead of you on a divided road. What is about to change?

The median ends and you will share one roadway with oncoming traffic

This is the point where head-on conflict comes back to your road, and drivers who miss it carry on using the left lane as though it were still theirs. Move right, expect headlights, and start treating the centre line as a real boundary again.

This sign appears while you are driving on a divided highway. What does it mean?

The median ends, and you will share one roadway with oncoming traffic

Past this point the barrier between the two directions disappears and traffic comes toward you on the same surface. Move right, bring your speed down and treat the road as two way again, because the habits that are safe on a divided highway are dangerous here.

This sign appears while you are driving on a divided highway. What changes ahead?

The two directions come back onto one roadway and you will meet oncoming traffic

You have been driving with nothing coming the other way, and that ends here. The habits built up over the divided stretch, sitting near the left line and pulling out freely, become dangerous the moment the median runs out. Move right and reset what you expect before you reach the point where it changes.

This sign faces you on a highway you have been driving for some distance. What changes just ahead?

The median ends, and you will meet traffic coming the other way on the same roadway

Up to this point the two directions have been kept apart, and past it they share one roadway. The lane to your left stops being a passing lane and becomes the lane oncoming traffic is using. Drivers who miss this sign are the ones found in the wrong lane at the transition.

You have passed this sign and you are still in the left lane. Why does that matter now?

The left lane is about to carry traffic coming toward you

When the median stops, the two roadways fold back into one and the space you are using becomes the oncoming side. Moving right well before the divider runs out is the whole reason you were told in advance.

You have been driving on a divided highway for an hour when this sign appears. Which of your current habits becomes the dangerous one?

Moving into the left hand lane to get past slower traffic

On a divided highway the left lane carries traffic going your way, so pulling into it is ordinary driving. Once the division ends, that same space carries vehicles coming straight at you, and the sign exists to break the habit before it causes a head on collision.