Keep left sign
Pass on the left side of the sign, so keep to the left of the island or divider ahead.
- Group
- Regulatory signs
- The group at a distance
- Mostly round, or a rectangular plate. Stop is the one octagon in the whole group and give way the one triangle. Usually white with a red ring or bar and a black legend. A few, like the shared path sign, are white on blue.
- Does this group carry the law
- Enforceable. Disobeying one is an offence in itself.
- In the sign deck
- 3 questions ask about this sign
What to do when you see it
In the order you do it, from the moment the sign comes into view.
- Pass to the left of the sign and the island, kerb or divider it is mounted on.
- Check your left mirror and blind spot before you move across, because a bicycle may be there.
- Hold your lane through the narrowing rather than drifting back out once the island ends.
Where you see it
On traffic islands at intersections, at the nose of a median that splits a road, at pedestrian refuges, and in front of bridge piers and roundabout splitter islands.
Across the states and territories
Used the same way across all jurisdictions. The mirrored keep right version appears where traffic is meant to pass on the other side of an island, and both are read as an instruction about the object in front of you rather than about the road generally.
Tell it apart from these
Both signs at the same size, next to each other, with the one line that separates them. These are the pairs people mix up under time pressure.
- Keep leftthis pageOne way
One way governs the whole street. Keep left governs the few metres around one island.
One way: Traffic on this road travels in the direction of the arrow only.
- Keep leftthis pageRoundabout
The roundabout sign also tells you to pass to the left of something, but it applies to a whole intersection with its own give way rule.
Roundabout: Drive around the roundabout to the left of the central island and give way to any vehicle already in it.
How the knowledge tests use it
It is often used to test the separate keep left rule for multi lane roads, which is a different thing: on a road with a limit over 80 km/h you must not sit in the right lane unless you are overtaking, turning right, or the other lanes are congested.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
This sign sits on a traffic island, median or obstruction and tells you which side of it to take. It says nothing about which lane you must stay in afterwards.
State and territory driver handbooks, regulatory signs
Try it in a question
The sign tests draw the artwork above the question and ask what it means, which is closer to the way you meet a sign on the road than reading a page about it. They are original questions written for this site rather than an agency's published bank.
More regulatory signs
Mostly white with red or black, and usually round or rectangular.