Curve to the left sign
The road ahead curves to the left, so slow down before you reach it.
- Group
- Warning signs
- The group at a distance
- Diamond, standing on one point, with no exceptions in this group. Yellow ground, black symbol.
- Does this group carry the law
- Not enforceable on its own. It changes nothing about right of way.
- 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.
- Slow down before the bend, not in it, so you are off the brakes as you turn.
- Move to the left of your lane on the approach to open up your view around the bend.
- Look through the curve to where the road reappears, rather than at the guide posts beside you.
- Accelerate gently once the road straightens.
Where you see it
On rural roads and hill roads where a single bend follows a straight, often with a black on yellow advisory speed plate underneath.
Across the states and territories
The diamond is national. The advisory speed plate under it is a recommendation rather than a limit in every jurisdiction, so the posted limit still applies, but ignoring the advisory number is how single vehicle rural crashes happen.
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.
- Curve to the leftthis pageCurve to the right
Mirror images of each other, and reading the wrong one means turning into the bend from the wrong part of the lane.
Curve to the right: The road ahead curves to the right, so slow down before you reach it.
- Curve to the leftthis pageWinding road
One curve or a series of them. The winding road sign tells you the bends keep coming, so the speed you choose has to last.
Winding road: The road ahead has a series of bends, so keep your speed down through all of them.
How the knowledge tests use it
Questions test where to brake, and the answer is before the curve rather than during it.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
A yellow diamond warns you about the road itself. This one shows the line of the road bending to the left, not an intersection or an order to turn.
State and territory driver handbooks, warning 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 warning signs
Yellow diamond with a black symbol.