What does the school crossing sign mean?

You are driving toward a crossing marked by this sign at the start of the school day. What should you be doing on the approach?

Covering the brake and getting ready to stop for anyone crossing

The sign marks where children are expected to cross, not where they will stay. Getting your foot over the brake before you arrive is the difference between an ordinary stop and a late one.

You see this sign ahead and a child is standing at the edge of the road waiting to cross. What must you do?

Slow, be ready to stop, and give way to the child crossing

The sign marks a place where children are expected to cross, and a child waiting at the edge is about to step out. Children read closing speed badly, so the safe assumption is that they will go as soon as they believe there is room, whether or not there really is.

What does this sign mark, as against the sign that opens a school zone?

The place where children cross, rather than a length of road with a lower limit

The school zone sign opens a stretch of road where a lower limit applies. This one marks the spot where children actually step off the curb, which is where you cover the brake and look well past the parked vehicles. Two different jobs, and a driver who reads them as the same thing slows down in the wrong place.

This sign stands at a marked crossing outside a school. Children are waiting on the corner and a crossing guard steps into the road with a stop paddle raised. What do you do?

Stop before the crossing and stay stopped until the guard and everyone crossing are back on the sidewalk

The crossing is not clear until the guard has left the road too, because the guard is standing there holding traffic for children who are still coming. Moving off when the front child clears your lane means driving at whoever is behind them. Wait for the road to empty, not for your lane to empty.

Near a school in Sydney, this sign marks the place children use to cross. What should you prepare to do?

Be ready to stop for children using the crossing

The sign identifies a school crossing, where children may enter the roadway. Approach at a speed that lets you stop for someone using it.

You are in the right lane and the vehicle beside you in the left lane has stopped at a crossing marked by this sign. What should you do?

Stop as well, because the stopped vehicle is hiding someone crossing

A vehicle stopped at a crossing acts as a screen, and whoever it stopped for is walking out from behind it into your lane. The collision that follows almost always involves the driver who kept moving in the next lane over.