What does the stop sign ahead sign mean?

This sign appears on a road where you cannot yet see any intersection. What is it telling you?

A stop sign is coming that may be hard to see in time

A warning sign tells you what is coming; it does not command anything by itself. This one goes up where a crest, a bend or trees hide the stop sign until it is too late to slow down gently.

This sign appears while you are driving at highway speed on a road with trees close to the shoulder. What does it ask of you?

Begin slowing now, because a stop sign is coming and may stay hidden until late

An advance warning sign goes up where the sign it announces is hidden by trees, a crest or a curve until it is too close to stop comfortably. You do not stop at this one; you shed speed early so that the real stop is easy when it finally appears.

This sign appears while you are travelling at the posted limit. What should you do?

Begin losing speed now, because the stop is close and may be hidden

This sign exists because the stop sign itself cannot be seen from far enough back, usually because of a crest, a bend or trees. Waiting until you can see it leaves you braking hard at the line, or past it. Treat the warning as the point where slowing down starts.

This sign appears on a rural road where the ground drops away in front of you. What does it mean, and what should you do about it?

A stop sign is coming that you may not see in time, so start slowing now

This is an advance warning, not the stop itself. The real sign is over the crest or round the bend, where a driver at speed would arrive on top of it. Slowing here means you reach the stop line at a speed you can control, while drivers who mistake the warning for the instruction stop in the middle of the road and get hit from behind.

You see this sign as you come over a crest on a fast road. What should you do first?

Begin slowing at once so the stop itself is gentle

The sign is placed at about the distance a driver needs to lose that much speed comfortably, so the useful part of it is the early braking. Waiting until you can see the stop sign turns an ordinary stop into a hard one, and the driver behind you gets even less warning than you did.

You pass this sign and a moment later the intersection comes into view with no traffic lights on it. What should you expect to find?

A stop sign that you must stop at completely

The symbol inside the diamond tells you which control is coming, and an eight sided shape means a stop sign rather than a set of lights. Reading the symbol instead of the colour is what separates this sign from the one that warns of a signal, and the two are the pair drivers mix up most.