Overview
For those of you who don’t live in the United States, I will list all of the road markings, road signs, and other road related stuffs. I highly encourage you read this guide if you don’t live in North America, so you can enjoy ATS in the way it was ment to be played.I will be taking credit from Wikipedia, as I’ve heard that it’s really good when it comes to this stuff, as well as my personal experience of driving the roads in America.If anyone is bilingual and wants to translate this guide into another language, please contact me on my Steam Profile or DM me on Twitter @t0mmycaz21. I will be happy for anyone that would like to do that.
Welcome!
Hello, and welcome to my guide! If you clicked on this, you are probably here just to learn about how the road signs and markings work here in the United States of America.
This guide will tell you what lines tell you what you can and can’t do, what the colors mean on signs, and the road systems. I will also be listing information on any sign that may or has made an apperance in American Truck Simulator. If you have a recommendation for a sign to put in, please tell me in the comments below.
Hopefully after reading this you will learn a little bit about America’s roads, and how to drive them properly.
A fun fact to start off, the USA has the largest network of roadways, with just over 4 million miles of roadways. That is plenty for SCS to work with.
Lets begin with Road Markings.
Road Markings
Double Solid Yellow Lines: Most commonly found on 2 lane side-by-side rural highways, these lines indicate that no passing can happen. Found on parts of the highway where there are lots of blind spots, like curvy roads and roads going over hills. They also show up on city roads as well.
Half Solid-Half Broken Yellow Lines: Very simliar to the Double Solid Yellow Lines, this road marking indicates that the side the broken line is on, that side of the road can pass, whilst the other side cannot. Only found on 2 lane side-by-side rural roads, and they can appear anywhere on those roads.
Single Broken Yellow Line: Like the last 2, only this marking indicates that either side can pass. Found on wide open, visible stretches of road.
Center Turning Lane: There isn’t really a marking for this road feature, but this is a whole lane for people who want to ONLY turn left in. Arrows curving left on the lane itself indicates this lane, as well as a pair of solid yellow lines and broken yellow lines on each side of the lane.
Single Broken White Line: This marking indicates lanes on roads that have 2 or more lanes on one side of the road. People are free to change lanes except in intersections.
Short Broken White Line: Very similar to what’s up above, but these lines indicate merging lanes for getting off a certain strech of road. You will commonly find these on exits on Interstates and other roads of the like.
Single Solid White Line: This means that lane changing is discouraged, but not illegal. This is found mainly on parts of multi-lane highways where construction is occuring.
Double Solid White Lines: These lines mean that lane changing is illegal. Shown in the picture below, they can happen anywhere where traffic needs to be controlled, like in metropolitan areas where toll lanes exist.
Stop Line: If a pair of crosswalk lines or zebra stripes don’t exist, there is usually a line indicating where to stop at an intersection, and may come with the word STOP in all caps. At intersections with lights, you stop at the line when it’s red, and then you can turn right if applicable. At intersections with stop signs, you stop at the line, and wait for an opening to go out.
Sometimes, neither of the markings show up on the road, to where you stop at the stop sign, and pull forward if you are turning and you need to see. Lights will always have either a stop line, or a pedestrian crosswalk to stop at.
Crosswalk Lines or Zebra Stripes: These take the place of the Stop Line when there is a crosswalk for people to go across. You stop at the closest line to you at a red light or at the bottom of the zebra stripes.
Road Signs (Colors)
All of the road signs in the US are color-coded so people can see what type of sign it is from a distance. Each of the colors have different meanings and alot of the signs I will list below also come in different colors as well.
White: The color white is used as the background for all of the regulatory signs, such as speed limits, stop signs, and other signs of the like. Regulatory basically means by law, so these signs you need to follow.
Red: Red is used as a supplement color for stop signs, yield signs, 4 way, Do Not Enter, and a couple of others. They mostly relate to the direction of movement, either stopping, or just that you are going the wrong way down a road.
Orange: Orange is reserved as the background for temporary road work signs. A lot of the warning signs you will see later can also show up in orange as well.
Yellow: This common color is mostly used on the background of warning signs. You don’t need to follow them by law, they just warn you of upcomming events on the road.
Green: Green is used on the background of signs that tell of the driver of distance to and from attractions, cities, and roads.
Blue: Mainly used for traveling services, like rest stops, information on traveling, and other places.
Brown: Brown is mostly used for signs referring to historical sites and other points of interest. A great example of this is the Historical US 66 sign that shows up whenever you are near the famous highway.
Black: The color black only shows up as the background on one way signs, night speed limits, and obviously the color of the text on some signs.
Road Signs (Follow By Law)
These right here are the road signs that you have to follow. Typically, signs you have to follow have white backgrounds, but some signs are different, for example, the night time speed limit sign.
Road Signs (Warning)
These signs here are not to be required by law to follow, but are often warnings of something upcomming, or information of other things, like cities and attractions. Most of the warning signs will have a yellow background, meaning to take those signs into consideration.
Road Signs (Informational Highway)
These road signs here show the roads that are upcomming, as well as other information. Any sign relating to distance or exits will have a green background. Signs that talk about restaurants and hotels will have a blue background.
This is the sign that shows up on divided highways and interstates. If there is an exit number, it will show up on top. The highway or interstate that you are getting on will show up on the top center, and the bottom center shows any towns or roads that you may encounter when you take this exit. Lastly, on the very bottom, it shows you the distance until the exit shows up.
This is another form of an exit sign. Arrows point to lanes dictating which lanes go to what. For example, the 2 left lanes and the middle lane stay on I-435 East. Another sign, pointing to the lane between the middle and right lanes is the exit lane for I-35 to Wichita, KS, or Des Moines, IA. If you want to take that road, stay in that lane. Finally, on the right, is the exit for Lackman Road, on exit 1A. You can tell its an exit lane from the yellow box that says, “EXIT ONLY”. This makes it easy to spot from a distance, so you can switch lanes according. The next exit would be for I-35, as the exit lane for Lackman Road would peel off. The signs change from situation from situation, but the idea and principle are similar. Lanes leading to destinations are pointed to with the direction shown above; exit lanes are yellow boxes.
Tells the driver of an exit, and the number of the exit if there is one. The number of the exit is dependent on the mile marker rounded to the nearest whole number. Also, if multiple exits exist within a mile, they are subdivided by letters (ex. 235A, 235B). Speaking of…
This sign lists off towns on your route and how far away they are in miles.
This tells drivers of any commodities are avaliable, like food, lodging, attractions, or other things. Also listed is the exit number that these commodities are available.
This tells drivers of an upcomming rest area, and the distance left to get there or and arrow indicating a rest area.
Other Highway Road Signs & Features
These signs here listed are situational signs, only showing up in certain places. I decided to make this section because of the character limit on guide sections.
The signs listed below have shown up in game versions 1.5 and later.
Truck Lane: Going up hills make trucks the slower vehicle, due to the amount of weight involved. So, on highways, both two lane side-by-side, and divided, they might come with a lane dedicated to slow trucks, as shown below.
Sometimes, the sign that indicates truck lanes or steep grades have flashing yellow lights to warn truck drivers about the feature. In my experiences in Colorado (which has been once), these lanes happen so often they are reduced to just a plain white sign with nothing on it.
Memorial Highways: Certain highways or bridges will have signs next to them that commemorate a group of individuals that did something. These are just there to remember those who did a great act, for example, the sign below.
This was a screenshot I took, and its kinda hard to read. Blowing up the picture will show that it says “Kern County Korean War Veterans”. They are just there to remember those, nothing really vital to your road journey, but it makes you remember those who has served our country, or community, or other groups.
Runaway Ramp: Trucks use airbrakes, yes? And sometimes, going down steep grades, the truck brakes may fail. As a precaution to keep trucks from wrecking into other vehicles, certain stretches of highway will come with Runaway Ramps or Lanes. The style differs from place to place. Some have upwards hills that are so steep that trucks will stop there, and others are just sand pits, kind of how at the end of drag strips there’s a sand pit to stop drag cars that can’t pull their parachute.
If you don’t have the box checked in the options to enable air brakes simulation, you will never need this road feature in the game. However, if you are daring and turn it on, be warned. Going down steep grades, you may need to use these.
Roundabouts: Something that exists a lot in Europe but is getting adopted by the masses in the US is the roundabout. They function much the same as they do in Europe, as you would expect. There exists a single lane roundabout and dual lane roundabouts. Single lane roundabouts are simple to understand: yield to traffic within the roundabout and exit where you need to exit. Dual lane roundabouts are a bit more complex. The left lane is usually reserved for traffic going left in the roundabout, and the right lane is reserved for traffic going right in the roundabout. Traffic going straight usually can stay in either lane in this instance. Sometimes roundabouts come with a curb for large trucks to use to easily get around.
Diverging Diamond Interchange: Intersections at interchanges really suck when traffic is high. Roundabouts are great and all, but they take up a lot of space, and not best for large vehicles. So, thats when the diverging diamond comes into play. A very new type of intersection that is still being researched, this alleviates a lot of traffic backup at interchanges. Essentially, you swap from driving on the right side of the road to the left, and back to the right when you leave the interchange. The intersection is managed by traffic lights on both ends and leaves room and gives efficiency to traffic getting on or off the controlled highway. Expect to see this a lot more as more and more interchanges switch to this more efficient style for high traffic areas.
Road Signs (Construction)
These signs indicate construction if there is any at all on the roads. These signs will all have orange backgrounds. The previously mentioned Warning signs can also be orange as well if they are used in a construction area, so there is that to note.
Road Signs and Highway Naming
Here, I will show you the different ways highways and interstates are named. These symbols can show up on a sign on their own, or accompanied by other signs.
Interstate Highways: These streaches of road are the main roads to get on for long distance travel. Maximising efficiency with multiple lanes and high-speeds, these roads should be traveled on to get somewhere quickly. A big difference that differentiates Interstates between US Highways and State Highways is that Interstates are controlled-access. This means that the only way to get on and off Interstates are by either A) The Interstate ends and turns into a Highway or regular road, or B) the use of interchanges. This change makes it where traveling Interstates in urbanized areas doesn’t mean you will be stopping for traffic lights, making traveling even more streamlined. The logo is uniform across the whole U.S. so finding them isn’t that hard.
The names are here for a reason other than differentiating highways. Even numbered Interstates are East-West orientated, whilst odd numbered Interstates are North-South orientated. Lower numbered interstates start in the west or south (i.e I-5 on the West Coast and I-10 in the South), and the numbers get larger the farther east or north you go (I-95 on the East Coast and I-90 in the North). Another thing to add: if the Interstate is a multiple of 5, so either it ends in 5 or 0, that Interstate will run boarder to boarder, coast to coast.
If all of this is a little confusing, I have some examples listed below.
Interstate 90, or also named I-90, is an Interstate that stretches from Seattle, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts. That is why I-90 gets an even number.
I-29 is an interstate that runs from Kansas City, Missouri, to Pembina, North Dakota, where the Canadian boarder is. That is why I-29 gets its odd number.
There are also Auxilliary Interstate Highways. These exist in metropolitan areas and carry 3 digits. The first digit depends on whether the Aux Interstate is either a loop or a spur. Spur Interstates are Interstates leading into a metropolitan area, and are given an odd first digit, whilst Loop Interstates circle around a metropolitan area, and are given an even first digit.
I-680 is a loop that circles around the northwest half of Omaha, Nebraska. Due to it being part of a loop, it is given an even first digit.
I-110 is a spur that links I-10 and I-5 to the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. Due to it emptying out into a city, it carries an odd first digit.
If for some reason you find an intra-planatery portal to the Hawaiian island of O’ahu and end up there, the interstates are prenoted with an H prefix. There’s only 4 interstates in Hawaii: H1, H2, H3, and H201. There’s a pretty low chance that Hawaii will be added in SCS, however, with modding, anything is possible.
The interstate system is similar for Alaska and Puerto Rico, US’s commonwealth territory. The ‘A’ prefix is for Alaska and ‘PR’ is for Puerto Rico. Again, very unlikely these states outside the Contiguous 48 will be added officially by SCS, but modders will probably make these map expansions.
U.S. Highways: These highways are a tier down from Interstates, and can either be divided, or side-by-side. These were originally very major ways to travel, but now they are mostly overtaken by Interstates. US Highways are still useful for reaching smaller towns and other underdeveloped areas, such as the Western US, and unlike Interstates, they are quite fun to drive. Highways change between using interchanges, and intersections, either with or without stoplights. The logo is also uniform across the whole U.S., just like the Interstate sign, except this is a basic white shield.
The numbering system for U.S. Highways are identical to how the Interstate numbering system is set up, but the North-South/ East-West order is reversed to avoid confusion between the two different types of highways, if a mistake is made in the written or spoken directions, for instance. This means, for example, U.S. 95 in the west and Interstate 95 in the east are on complete opposite ends of the country.
U.S. 6 is a major highway that streaches from Bishop, California, all the way to Providencetown, Massechusetts. This highway passes through Denver, Colorado, Des Moines, Iowa, and Cleveland, Ohio, to name a few of the major cities this highway passes through.
State Highways:The last in the hiarchy of road systems in the U.S are State Highways. These only exist in the state that they belong in. Because of this, you have to be weary about how the State Highways are labeled. A key difference between State Hwys and US Hwys is the fact that US Hwys are built to a standard, while State Hwys vary in quality. Roads such as the CA 99 are built much the same as an Interstate would, while lesser known routes between towns and villages are lesser maintained and are of lower quality.
All State Highway signs are based off of this simple design.
However, designs may vary. Most are very similar to design and color, but some are vastly different, like in California, with it’s spearheaded green background with white outline.
Some State Highway systems also come with their own loop, link, and spur highways as well, to note. Certain States like Texas, for example, have their own highway system known as Farm to Market or Ranch to Market highways, which their specific purpose was connecting rural areas to towns to sell their goods. These may come into ATS when SCS works on Texas, due to the large precense of farms and ranches existing in that state.
I put a link in here[www.routemarkers.com] to show you all 50 states with their respective state highway signs. It would take a while to put pictures in for all 50 states and Washington D.C. Plus, some of you don’t care. If you want to see them, there’s the link.
Business Route: Business Routes are split off the main highway or interstate and is a road that goes right through a business district in a city. Sometimes the business route was part of it’s parent highway then had a bypass built around it. Signs for these are your typical highway and interstate signs, but instead of their base colors they are green and say BUSINESS in all caps. Other than being part of the highway system there isn’t much else to these roads.
There are two lower tiers of roads that exist in the US, county highways and township roads, however they are so bland and uninteresting I am going to leave them out. Research them if you want.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading this. Hopefully you got something out of this, and you know now why this guy in ATS Multiplayer is yelling at you for passing over a double solid yellow line. If there is anything to add, please put it down in the description below. Also, share this to your foreign friends that also play ATS so they can understand how this game works. This guide can also work for travel as well, not just video games, so there’s a bonus.
Thank you all for making this one of the top rated guides for ATS! I’m happy that I helped out so many people with this, and also had a bit of fun with it too! I don’t play ATS that much anymore because of life and interests, but periodically I will update this guide with new and updated information.
Hope you liked this, and safe driving!
~TomBoi
Update Notes
Feburary 14, 2016: Guide creation
Feburary 28, 2016: Changed a sentence in first section about road markings; added update notes section.
March 4, 2016: Added “Road Signs (Colors)” section that needed to be added.
March 28, 2016: Added something about Short White Broken Lines to “Road Markings”. Thanks to Ford Explorer(VTX3) for reminding me about this.
April 17th, 2016: Added “Center Turn Lane” feature in Road Markings, and “Center Turn Lane Only” Sign in Regulatory Road Signs.
July 18th, 2016: Added a link in the Interstates and Highways section to a page with all of the State Highway signs for those who want to see.
October 10th, 2016: Added a notice for anyone who wants to translate my guide into other languages in “Conclusion”.
October 21st, 2016: Added “Welcome” section to make myself look more friendly. Also mentioned Farm-to-Market/Ranch-to-Market roads in “Road Signs and Highway Naming” section.
November 25th, 2016: Added “Other Highway Road Signs” section due to character limit in sections, and added Truck Lanes and Memorial Highway subjects in that section. Also added another highway sign in “Road Signs (Informational Highway)”, and the No Passing Zone sign in “Road Signs (Follow by Law)”.
January 1st, 2017: Added in the Runaway Ramp feature in “Other Highway Road Signs” section, and added the Truck Speed Limit variation in the “Follow by Law” section.
March 14th, 2017: Added visitor milestone of 3,000 and One Year anniversary in Conclusion section.
October 3rd, 2017: I had to fix the Road Signs (Informational Highway) section. Formating was messed up for some reason. I added one picture, and changed one picture out. Also added additional information to the Road Signs and Highway Naming section.
November 10, 2017: Added “Business Route” to Road Signs and Highway Naming section.
January 5th, 2018: Added more clarification in Road Signs and Highway Naming section.
Also added a sign in the Road Signs (Construction)
November 24th, 2018: Added the highly requested brown color to Road Signs (Colors). How I just got around to it after they showed up in Arizona I don’t know. Procrastination I guess. Thanks to @funkybacon for asking for it.
November 11th, 2019: Renamed “Other Highway Road Signs” to “Other Highway Road Signs And Features”; Added Roundabout and Diverging Diamond Interchange to “Other Highway Road Signs and Features”; Added new thanks message for Conclusion; Jokingly added a section in Road Signs and Highway Naming about interstates outside the Contiguous 48 (Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico) because I was bored.