Facing a yield sign, when is a driver actually required to come to a complete stop?

Why C is correct

A yield sign transfers right of way rather than imposing a stop, and the distinction has consequences: a driver who treats it as a stop sign creates a hazard of their own by coming to rest at the end of a slip lane with traffic closing from behind. The duty is to arrive at a speed from which you can assess and react, then stop if there is anybody to yield to. Where the junction is genuinely empty and sight lines are good, proceeding without halting is correct. Where there is doubt, stopping is never wrong and costs only patience.

Why the other options are wrong

A. Only where the road being entered is a through highway

Whether the far road is a through highway determines who must yield, not whether this sign demands a halt. The sign's meaning is settled on its own terms.

B. Always, before entering the roadway ahead

Stopping unconditionally belongs to a stop sign rather than a yield, and designing two different signs would otherwise be pointless. The inverted triangle exists to say yield instead of halt. A driver who converts every yield into a full stop inside moving traffic has simply replaced one hazard with another one.

D. Stop first, then proceed without checking a second time

Stopping and then moving off without looking again assumes conditions held still in the interim. Any movement into traffic deserves a fresh check at the point of commitment.

On the road

A driver comes to a full halt at a yield sign on an empty slip lane at dawn, with a car closing behind at forty. The hesitation was unnecessary, and it created the only hazard present that morning. Nobody was waiting anywhere to be yielded to. The correct line was to keep rolling at a sensible speed, glance once, and go.

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