You arrive at an intersection where the traffic signal is showing a steady flashing red light in every direction. What does a flashing red require?

Why A is correct

A flashing red converts the intersection into a stop-controlled one: every driver stops fully, then proceeds in turn when no conflicting traffic or pedestrian is in the way, exactly as at an all-way stop. The convention exists because a signal that has lost its normal logic is often still energised, and the flashing modes give drivers a coherent substitute behaviour instead of leaving them to guess at a dead or cycling box. Flashing red means stop-and-go-when-clear; flashing yellow, its counterpart, means slow-and-proceed-with-caution without stopping. Knowing which is which turns a signal fault from a free-for-all into an orderly queue.

Why the other options are wrong

B. Stop and remain stopped until the signal returns to normal operation

Waiting for a return to normal operation is unnecessary and can mean an hour in an empty junction during a power fault. The flashing display is itself the operating mode, with defined behaviour attached — it is not a malfunction awaiting repair before anyone may move.

C. Treat it as a flashing yellow and slow to half speed through the junction

Flashing yellow is the non-stop mode, and half speed is not its definition either. Collapsing the two flashing colours into one behaviour is precisely the confusion the distinction exists to prevent: red stops, yellow yields.

D. Proceed through with caution, because flashing means the signal has no authority

Flashing does not dissolve the signal's authority into a suggestion. A flashing red is one of the most directive displays a signal can show, and rolling through it is treated exactly like rolling a stop sign.

On the road

A storm knocks the signal at your neighbourhood junction into four-way flash. Every approach turns into an all-way stop by convention: full stop, first-stopped-first-out, the right-hand rule for ties. Traffic crawls but never collides, and the whole system works because enough drivers know that flashing red is a stop sign in costume.

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