Slower Traffic Keep Right sign
Used on multi-lane roads to keep slower vehicles out of the faster lanes and reduce unnecessary lane changes.
What to do
If you are driving slower than the traffic around you, use the right-hand lane.
If vehicles are stacking up behind you or passing you on the right, move over to the right lane and let faster traffic go by.
Where it's used
Section 2B.38 allows SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT on multi-lane roads to improve capacity and cut unnecessary lane changing caused by slow vehicles in the left lanes. It should be placed at or just beyond the start of a multi-lane section or an added climbing lane, and at spots where drivers tend to linger in the left lane, but not at or through interchange areas or along acceleration and deceleration lanes. It is a vertical black-on-white regulatory sign, and TRUCKS USE RIGHT LANE (R4-5) may supplement it.
Don't confuse it with
- Keep Right Except to Pass: KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS applies to every driver on a two-lane-per-direction road, while SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT is aimed at drivers going slower than the flow.
- Keep Right: The Keep Right symbol sign tells you which side of an island or obstruction to pass, not which lane to drive in.
- Combined Maximum and Minimum Speed Limits: The minimum speed sign sets a legal speed floor, while this sign only directs slower vehicles to the right lane.
- Type
- Regulatory signs
- Shape
- Vertical rectangle
- Colors
- white, black
- MUTCD code
- R4-3
- MUTCD section
- 2B.38
On state permit tests
Our questions for 7 states ask about this sign, including Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas and Louisiana.
Test yourself
What does a SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT sign require? (Florida practice test)
- Slower traffic must stay in the right lane unless passing and must leave the left lane when overtaken by a faster vehicle
- All traffic must use the right lane only
- Trucks must use the right lane at all times
- Drivers may pass only on the right
Show answer
Slower traffic must stay in the right lane unless passing and must leave the left lane when overtaken by a faster vehicle. Slower traffic stays right except to pass and must move out of the left lane when a faster vehicle is overtaking.
What does a 'Slower Traffic Keep Right' sign mean? (Georgia practice test)
- Trucks must use the right lane
- When there are two or more lanes in your direction, slower traffic should use the right lane
- Right lane ends
- No passing on the right
Show answer
When there are two or more lanes in your direction, slower traffic should use the right lane. When two or more lanes go your way, slower traffic should travel in the right (outside) lane(s).
More regulatory signs
Stop
All-Way plaque
Yield
Yield Here to Pedestrians
In-Street Pedestrian Crossing
Speed Limit
Night Speed Limit
Combined Maximum and Minimum Speed LimitsFrom the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), 11th edition, section 2B.38. Sign image: public domain, source.