Yield Signs Point Out Need to Give Way, Proceed With Caution

Dear Street Smart:

Could you please clarify what yield means? I thought it meant to stop and let approaching cars with the right of way go first, then proceed with caution.

The northbound Interstate 5 entrance at Avenida Pico in San Clemente says “yield.” But if I stop to let oncoming traffic that has a green arrow go, I am afraid of getting rear-ended, and people honk and give me dirty looks. What am I supposed to do?

The cars that have the green light also go into the neighboring lane because it is off-center, so you could get hit that way too if you don’t yield to them.

Cheryl May, San Clemente

Take comfort in knowing you are not the only person who ponders the question of when to yield.

Finding the answer to your question, however, was no cinch. Two definitive books on California driving yielded precious little information about your question.

The California Vehicle Code never clearly defines what the yield sign means. The answer also is absent from the California Driver Handbook, that little booklet people study before taking their written driving test.

Sam Haynes, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento, said yield can mean either stop or slow down, depending on the traffic situation. He could find nothing written to support one or the other.

Bill Madison, spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento, said yield means “to let the other person by.” It “means to give up or give way.”

“Yield means stop and wait for oncoming traffic,” Madison said. “You need to be a defensive driver, and when you don’t yield, you are not being a defensive driver,” he added.

Besides locations with posted yield signs, intersections without stop signs or blind intersections where it is not easy to see oncoming traffic are examples of places to yield, he said.

“It is a wise move on her part to stop and then proceed with caution,” Madison said of your letter. “As for the people behind her going so fast that they might rear-end her, they are probably tailgating anyway, and they should be doing something to correct their behavior. We have an aversion in this society to using our brakes. We don’t want to stop the car until we get there.”

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Commuters on the Riverside Freeway in eastern Anaheim will encounter a number of ramp closures beginning this week because of new car-pool lane construction. Ramps will reopen between Christmas and late February, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The westbound on-ramp to the Riverside Freeway at Tustin Avenue will close Nov. 15 after morning rush hour and is expected to reopen before Christmas.

Later this month, the eastbound Kraemer Boulevard on-ramp will close until late February.

Also expected later this month is the reopening of the eastbound Kraemer Boulevard/Glassell Street off-ramp, which has been closed for three months. Construction at the site is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

Closures of the westbound Kraemer Boulevard off-ramp and loop on-ramp have been postponed until early 1994 to allow for better traffic flow during the holidays.

Detours will be clearly marked once the Kraemer off-ramp closes, and drivers will be directed to the newly opened Tustin Avenue off-ramp and to alternative routes in the area.

The new car-pool lanes are being financed by Measure M, Orange County’s half-cent transportation sales tax, and are part of an overall plan to provide car-pool lanes stretching the length of the freeway in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.

For additional information on the construction of this project, call (714) 768-4225, a special help line established by OCTA.