Yield Sign

Yield Sign

In road transport, a yield (Canada, Ireland, South Africa, South Korea and the United States) or give way (United Kingdom, other Commonwealth and English-speaking countries, most non-English-speaking countries translate to "give way" as well rather than "yield") traffic sign indicates that each driver must prepare to stop if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed. A driver who stops has yielded the right of way to another. In contrast, a stop sign requires each driver to stop completely before proceeding, even if no other traffic is present.

The first US yield sign was installed in 1950 at First Street and Columbia Avenue Tulsa, Oklahoma, having been devised and designed by Tulsa police officer Clinton Riggs. Riggs invented only the sign, not the rule, which was already in place. The sign as originally conceived by Officer Riggs was shaped like a keystone; later versions bore the shape of an inverted equilateral triangle which has been almost universally adopted. Particular regulations regarding appearance, installation, and compliance with the signs vary by jurisdiction.

However, the triangular sign was used much earlier in Europe, e. g. in Czechoslovakia was codified in 1938 in blue-white variant without words and in 1939 was in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia changed to the current red-white variant. A black triangle (within the standard down-arrow-shape of stop signs) was a symbol of "stop for all vehicles" since cca 1925 in Germany.