What does the yield sign mean?

This sign faces you as you approach an intersection with a busier road. What does it require of you?

Slow enough to judge the gap, and stop only if you cannot enter safely

This sign hands the right of way to the other road without ordering a stop. Approach slowly enough that stopping is still an option, and stop when there is no safe gap. Treating it as a stop sign surprises the driver behind you, and treating it as nothing causes the crash it was put there to prevent.

This sign faces you as you approach an intersection, and a car is already crossing it from your left. What must you do?

Slow down and let that car through, stopping if that is what it takes

Yield means give up the right of way, not stop by default. You slow enough to judge the situation and you let anything already in or close to the intersection go first, and when the only safe way to do that is to stop, you stop.

This sign faces you where a side road joins a main road. No cars are coming, but a cyclist is riding along the near lane close to the curb. What do you do?

Wait for the cyclist to pass, the same as you would for a car

Yield means give way to everything already using that road, and a bicycle is traffic in exactly the way a car is. Cutting in front of a rider forces them to brake hard on a narrow strip of road with the curb on one side and you on the other. Wait for the gap you would want if you were on the bike.

This sign faces you where a side road joins a busy through road at an angle. The traffic is steady but there are gaps in it. What does the sign ask of you?

Slow down, give way to traffic already on the road, and stop if that is the only way to do it

A yield asks you to give up the right of way, not to stop for its own sake. If there is a safe gap you may join without stopping, and if there is not, you wait, which includes stopping dead when the road is full. In Quebec this sign may also carry the word CÉDEZ, which means give way.

You are about to turn at a junction controlled by this sign, and someone has just stepped off the curb into your path. What must you do?

Give way to the person on foot as well as to vehicle traffic

The duty to yield covers pedestrians, not only other vehicles, and it applies whether or not the crossing is painted. Someone on foot needs far more time than a car to clear your path, so the gap you accept has to be bigger, not smaller.

You reach the end of a ramp where this sign faces you, and the road you are joining is busy. What does the sign require?

Give way to traffic already on the road, and stop only if no gap comes

The difference from a stop sign is that stopping here is a last resort rather than a duty. You match the speed of the traffic and slot into a gap when one exists, and you stop only when none does. Waiting for an empty road backs up everyone behind you and creates a hazard of its own.