Traffic is heavy and you find yourself following two seconds behind the car ahead. What should you do in good conditions?

Increase the gap to at least three seconds

Hold at two seconds, which is the standard

Reduce the gap so others do not merge into it

Match the gap kept by surrounding traffic

Four cars arrive at a four-way stop. Two of them stop at exactly the same moment, side by side on intersecting roads. Who proceeds first?

The driver on the right, since the first to arrive goes and ties are broken in favour of the right

The driver on the left, who has the shorter path across

The driver going straight, ahead of any turning vehicle

The larger vehicle, which needs more room

A yellow diamond-shaped sign with a black symbol appears ahead. What category of sign is it?

A warning sign, alerting you to a condition ahead

A regulatory sign, imposing a legal requirement

A guide sign, giving directions

You need fuel and see a blue sign at the next exit. What is it likely to show?

Motorist services such as fuel, food and lodging

One train clears the crossing and the lights die down. Why check again before rolling forward?

There may be more than one set of tracks — and another train

The gates may descend faster the second time

Reversing trains have no lights

No reason — a cleared crossing is a safe crossing

Red lamps alternate at the crossing though the arms have not dropped yet. May you slip across?

No — flashing red lights at a crossing mean stop, do not cross

Yes, until the arms physically block the lane

Yes, if you cross faster than 20 mph

The crossing's lights are dark and its arms point at the sky. Does that settle whether it is safe?

No — look and listen for trains anyway

Yes — inactive equipment guarantees no train

Yes, at crossings inside city limits

Only freight lines need a second look

A reply can wait two exits, but the driver types it now, on the highway. What does Texas law call that?

Illegal — electronic messages may not be sent or read while driving

Legal if the phone is in a cradle

A matter of local ordinance only

Three months into holding a Texas learner's permit, may the new driver take hands-free calls?

No — permit holders may not use phones in their first six months

Yes — hands-free is open to every permit holder

Yes, when a licensed adult is in the car

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PRACTICE ENGINE · TX ROAD SIGNS

TX Road Signs Practice Test.
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Written and reviewed by Vincent Ruan, EA, CFP®

Verified against the official content outline August 6, 2026

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QUESTION 1 / 50Alcohol, Drugs and Impaired DrivingEasy0/0

Someone has had several drinks over an evening and asks how long until they can drive. What determines the answer?

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1. Someone has had several drinks over an evening and asks how long until they can drive. What determines the answer?
- A. Whether they exercise to burn it off
- B. Elapsed time alone, since nothing else lowers blood alcohol concentration
- C. How much food they eat before driving
- D. How much water they drink to dilute it
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The body processes alcohol at a rate that food, exercise and water do not change, so the only variable is how long you wait. Each remedy in the alternatives targets how alert the person feels, which is a different thing from how much alcohol is in their blood — and only the second one is measured.
2. Traffic is heavy and you find yourself following two seconds behind the car ahead. What should you do in good conditions?
- A. Match the gap kept by surrounding traffic
- B. Reduce the gap so others do not merge into it
- C. Hold at two seconds, which is the standard
- D. Increase the gap to at least three seconds
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Three seconds is the baseline in good conditions, and it should be extended further in rain, at night or with a heavy load. Closing the gap to prevent merging is a common habit and removes exactly the margin that would let you stop if the car ahead braked hard.
3. Four cars arrive at a four-way stop. Two of them stop at exactly the same moment, side by side on intersecting roads. Who proceeds first?
- A. The driver on the right, since the first to arrive goes and ties are broken in favour of the right
- B. The driver going straight, ahead of any turning vehicle
- C. The driver on the left, who has the shorter path across
- D. The larger vehicle, which needs more room
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
Arrival order governs first, and only a genuine tie brings the right-hand rule into play. Direction of travel and vehicle size never enter the calculation at a four-way stop, though a driver going straight does have priority over an oncoming driver turning left once both are moving.
4. A yellow diamond-shaped sign with a black symbol appears ahead. What category of sign is it?
- A. A warning sign, alerting you to a condition ahead
- B. A guide sign, giving directions
- C. A work zone sign
- D. A regulatory sign, imposing a legal requirement
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
Yellow with a diamond outline is the warning family, which tells you what to expect rather than what you must do. A work zone carries the same diamond shape but in orange, and the colour change is the whole distinction — which is why colour is designed to be readable before shape resolves.
5. You need fuel and see a blue sign at the next exit. What is it likely to show?
- A. A road hazard ahead
- B. Motorist services such as fuel, food and lodging
- C. A route number change
- D. A state park or historic site
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Blue is reserved for motorist services, which is why it is the colour to scan for when you need fuel rather than directions. Brown carries recreational and cultural destinations, and the pair are easy to confuse at speed because both appear on the same approach to an exit.
6. One train clears the crossing and the lights die down. Why check again before rolling forward?
- A. No reason — a cleared crossing is a safe crossing
- B. There may be more than one set of tracks — and another train
- C. The gates may descend faster the second time
- D. Reversing trains have no lights
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Crossings often carry multiple sets of tracks, and the train that just passed can hide a second one behind it. Confirming every track is clear before moving is the rule precisely because a cleared first track proves nothing.
7. Red lamps alternate at the crossing though the arms have not dropped yet. May you slip across?
- A. Yes, if you cross faster than 20 mph
- B. Yes, until the arms physically block the lane
- C. No — flashing red lights at a crossing mean stop, do not cross
- D. Yes, when no horn is audible
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Flashing red lights at a crossing command the same stop that lowered arms do — the arms are backup hardware, not the trigger. Speed and silence change nothing once the lights are active.
8. The crossing's lights are dark and its arms point at the sky. Does that settle whether it is safe?
- A. No — look and listen for trains anyway
- B. Yes — inactive equipment guarantees no train
- C. Yes, at crossings inside city limits
- D. Only freight lines need a second look
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
Equipment can fail or be absent, so the duty to look and listen survives inactive lights and raised arms. No location or line type exempts a crossing from that check; the hardware assists your senses, never replaces them.
9. A reply can wait two exits, but the driver types it now, on the highway. What does Texas law call that?
- A. A matter of local ordinance only
- B. Legal above 45 mph on highways
- C. Illegal — electronic messages may not be sent or read while driving
- D. Legal if the phone is in a cradle
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Texas bans sending and receiving electronic messages while driving statewide — no speed window, and a cradle changes the grip, not the reading and composing that the ban targets. It is state law, not a city-by-city option.
10. Three months into holding a Texas learner's permit, may the new driver take hands-free calls?
- A. Yes — hands-free is open to every permit holder
- B. No — permit holders may not use phones in their first six months
- C. Yes, when a licensed adult is in the car
- D. Only on roads below 35 mph
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Learner-permit holders are barred from cellphone use for their first six months of driving, hands-free included. The supervising adult's presence is a licensing condition, not a phone waiver, and no speed band opens an exception.
11. Rolling through an active school zone, a driver holds the phone to scroll a map. Legal in Texas?
- A. Yes, below the school-zone speed limit
- B. No — any handheld device use in a school zone is illegal
- C. Only calls are barred in school zones
- D. Yes — maps are exempt from phone rules
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
School zones ban handheld device use outright — navigation, calls and messages alike, because the hand and eyes are off the task either way. Driving slowly does not restore the exemption; mounting the device or waiting does.
12. A licensed 17-year-old — permit days behind them — picks up the phone at a long red light. Allowed?
- A. No — drivers under 18 may not use handheld devices
- B. Yes, while the vehicle is stationary
- C. Only during daylight hours
- D. Yes — full licensure ends the phone restrictions
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The under-18 handheld ban follows age, not licence class — graduating from the permit does not lift it. Being stopped in traffic is still driving for this rule, and it runs around the clock until the eighteenth birthday.
13. Who in a Texas vehicle is required to be belted — the front seats or everyone aboard?
- A. Only occupants under 18
- B. Everyone — the driver and all passengers
- C. Only on highways, not city streets
- D. The driver and front passenger only
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Texas requires seat belts on the driver and every passenger, front and rear, on every road. Front-seat-only and highway-only versions of the rule are older laws from other places, not the Texas standard.
14. An adult in your back seat shrugs off the belt for a short hop across town. Does Texas law reach them?
- A. Only when children are also aboard
- B. No — rear-seat adults choose for themselves
- C. Yes — all passengers must buckle, rear seats included
- D. Only on trips over ten miles
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The belt requirement covers all passengers with no carve-out for adults in the back or for short trips. An unbelted rear passenger is both a violation and a projectile in a crash — the two reasons the rule is written that way.
15. A one-year-old rides along to the store. Which way must the car seat face in Texas?
- A. Either way, if a harness is used
- B. Rear-facing, until age two or the seat's stated limit
- C. Forward-facing, once the child turns one
- D. Forward-facing in the front seat
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Infants and toddlers ride rear-facing until age two or until they outgrow the seat's height or weight limit. Turning the seat at the first birthday is the common error this guideline exists to correct.
16. Somewhere in Texas a legally posted limit tops every other in the state. What figure is it?
- A. 70 mph
- B. 75 mph
- C. 85 mph
- D. 90 mph
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The Transportation Commission may establish limits of 75, 80 or even 85 mph on studied corridors, and 85 is the ceiling any Texas road can carry. The 70 figure is the statute's own default maximum, not the upper bound.
17. An officer stops a 40-year-old in a pickup and the reading comes back 0.09. Where does Texas draw the intoxication line?
- A. 0.10 — the reading is under it
- B. There is no numeric line in Texas
- C. 0.08 — the reading is over it
- D. 0.05 for pickup drivers
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Legal intoxication in Texas begins at 0.08 percent BAC for adult non-commercial drivers, so 0.09 is over the line. A pickup is an ordinary vehicle for this purpose, and the numeric threshold is very much on the books.
18. A first DWI conviction in Texas can cost how much in fines, before state assessments?
- A. A fixed $1,250
- B. Up to $2,000
- C. Up to $500
- D. Up to $10,000
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
A first offense carries a fine of up to $2,000, with separate state fines assessed at sentencing on top. The $10,000 tier belongs to third offenses and child-endangerment cases, and no DWI fine is a flat scheduled amount.
19. Convicted of a first DWI, a Texas driver asks about jail. What does the sentence structure look like?
- A. A mandatory two years
- B. Thirty days, all suspended automatically
- C. Probation only — no jail on a first offense
- D. Up to 180 days, three of them mandatory
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
A first conviction allows up to 180 days in jail and requires three mandatory days — first-timers are not probation-proof. Multi-year terms enter at the felony tiers, and nothing about the minimum days suspends itself.
20. The sober designated driver's passenger nurses an opened beer in the cup holder. Any problem under Texas law?
- A. Only after 10 p.m.
- B. No — only the drinker can be cited
- C. Yes — an open container in the vehicle is illegal regardless of impairment
- D. No, if the driver's BAC is zero
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Carrying an open container of alcohol in the vehicle is illegal even when nobody is impaired — the offense is the container, not the driver's reading. Sobriety and the clock offer no shelter from it.
21. Snow cakes over a red sign with eight sides, hiding its letters. What does Texas expect you to do at it?
- A. Ignore it until the lettering is readable
- B. Come to a full stop — the shape alone commands it
- C. Yield only when traffic approaches
- D. Slow down and treat it as a caution
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The octagon is used for nothing except STOP, so an unreadable face changes nothing — eight sides means a complete stop. That single-purpose design exists precisely for weather, glare and angles that hide the word.
22. Posted in advance of the tracks outside town is a sign in the shape of a circle. What is its subject?
- A. A livestock crossing you are approaching
- B. A railroad crossing you are approaching
- C. A weight-limited bridge
- D. The end of the paved surface
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Round is the advance-railroad-warning shape, so the outline announces tracks ahead before you can read anything on it. Livestock, pavement and bridge warnings all ride on diamonds, not circles.
23. Every sign for the next mile has turned orange and barrels line the lane edge. What does the color announce?
- A. A detour for trucks only
- B. High-wind caution area
- C. Road work and workers ahead
- D. Hunting season along the highway
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Orange belongs exclusively to construction and work zones, so the palette shift itself says people and machinery may share the roadway ahead. Wind and truck-route messages arrive on yellow and white signage.
24. Signs for a riverside campground and state historic park share one color on Texas highways. Which is it?
- A. Orange
- B. Blue
- C. Brown
- D. Green
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Recreational and cultural destinations — campgrounds, parks, historic ground — are signed in brown. Green carries route guidance, blue lists traveler services, and orange means you are entering road work.
25. On a Texas farm road the center stripe is yellow while the lane edges are white. Why yellow in the middle?
- A. It marks a no-parking corridor
- B. It divides traffic heading opposite ways
- C. It divides car lanes from truck lanes
- D. It marks pavement due for resurfacing
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Yellow pavement lines separate opposing flows, so a yellow stripe in the middle tells you the far lane carries traffic toward you. Vehicle-type splits and parking rules are conveyed by signs, not stripe color.
26. The stripe beside your lane is solid yellow; across it, the opposing side has a broken one. What is off-limits to you?
- A. Crossing to pass — your side is closed to it
- B. Nothing — solid lines are advisory
- C. Turning left into driveways
- D. Driving faster than 55
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
A solid yellow line on your side means passing is not allowed from your direction, even while the broken line lets opposing drivers pass the other way. The marking is binding, and it speaks to passing rather than to speed.
27. A beacon over one minor crossroads pulses red at your lane only. What is the Texas treatment?
- A. Turn right; straight-through is barred
- B. Wait there until the beacon stops
- C. Reduce speed and cross with care
- D. Halt fully, yield, then continue when clear
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
A flashing red signal carries the force of a stop sign: full stop, give way, proceed when safe. It will not cycle to green, and it restricts nothing about your direction of travel once the stop and yield are done.
28. You are approaching a tow truck stopped on the shoulder with its overhead lights flashing. The posted limit is 65 mph and there is no room to change lanes. What does Texas require?
- A. Slow to 45 mph, which is 20 mph below the posted limit
- B. Slow to 55 mph, a 10 mph reduction
- C. Slow to 20 mph
- D. Maintain speed but move as far right as possible
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The reduction is relative to the posted limit rather than an absolute figure, so 65 minus 20 gives 45. Reading it as a flat 20 mph would have you crawling on a highway, which is its own hazard, and the rule offers the reduction only when moving over a full lane is not possible.
29. Which stopped vehicles trigger the Texas Move Over or Slow Down law?
- A. Only vehicles stopped in a marked emergency lane
- B. Law enforcement, tow trucks, utility vehicles, municipal waste trucks, emergency responders and TxDOT vehicles displaying activated overhead lights
- C. Law enforcement and ambulances only
- D. Any vehicle stopped on the shoulder, including a disabled private car
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The list is broader than emergency services and includes utility and waste vehicles, which is what catches drivers who scan for a police car and dismiss anything else. The activated overhead lights are the trigger, so a disabled private vehicle without them falls outside the law even though courtesy still applies.
30. Texas expanded the Move Over or Slow Down law effective September 1, 2025. Which workers did the change add?
- A. Postal carriers and delivery drivers
- B. Animal control officers and parking enforcement employees
- C. School crossing guards and bus monitors
- D. Construction flaggers and survey crews
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Two occupations were added in the 2025 expansion, both involving workers who stop repeatedly on roadsides in vehicles the public does not read as emergency vehicles. Anyone who studied from a handbook printed before September 2025 will have the older list.
31. What is the maximum fine for a first Move Over or Slow Down offence in Texas, and what changes if the violation causes serious injury?
- A. Up to $500 for a first offence, with no escalation
- B. Up to $1,250 for a first offence, rising to up to $4,000 with possible jail time where serious injury results
- C. Up to $1,250 in all cases regardless of outcome
- D. Up to $200, treated as a standard moving violation
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The penalty is tiered on the consequence rather than on the conduct, so the same failure to move over is a $1,250 exposure or a $4,000 exposure with jail depending on what happens to the person on the roadside. Treating it as an ordinary moving violation understates it by an order of magnitude.
32. What maximum speed limit does Texas law itself set?
- A. 75 mph on all rural highways
- B. 85 mph, the highest posted in the state
- C. 70 mph, with higher limits available only by Commission action
- D. 65 mph, matching the federal standard
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The statutory figure is 70, and the well-known higher Texas limits exist because the Transportation Commission is empowered to raise them, not because the statute sets them. Confusing the highest posted limit with the statutory maximum is the trap, since 85 mph exists on one stretch of road rather than in the statute.
33. Before the Texas Transportation Commission may post a limit above the statutory maximum, what must happen?
- A. A local referendum must approve the increase
- B. A traffic or engineering study must determine that the speed is safe and reasonable, and the highway must be designed to accommodate it
- C. The road must carry a minimum daily traffic volume
- D. The legislature must amend the statutory maximum
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
Two conditions apply together: an engineering finding that the speed is safe and reasonable, and a road built to accommodate it. That is why an 85 mph limit appears on a purpose-built tollway rather than on any rural highway with light traffic.
34. A school bus ahead of you on a two-lane road switches on its flashing red lights and extends its stop arm. You are travelling in the opposite direction. What must you do in Texas?
- A. Stop only if children are visible
- B. Continue, because the stop arm binds only traffic behind the bus
- C. Continue at reduced speed, since you are on the other side of the road
- D. Stop, because the requirement applies regardless of which direction you are headed on an undivided road
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Direction of travel does not matter on an undivided road, and neither does whether you can see children — the flashing lights and the stop arm are the signal to stop. The single exception in Texas is a divided highway, which this road is not.
35. The same bus is now stopped on the far side of a divided highway with a median between you. What does Texas require?
- A. You must stop unless there are three or more lanes in your direction
- B. You must slow to 20 mph and pass with caution
- C. You must stop, as on any other road
- D. You may continue, because the divided highway exception applies
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Texas releases opposing traffic when a physical division separates the roadways, which is the one carve-out in an otherwise strict rule. This is precisely where states differ from one another, so a driver crossing a state line should not assume the exception travels with them.
36. You have stopped for a school bus. When may you move again?
- A. As soon as the stop arm begins to retract
- B. After counting ten seconds from your stop
- C. Once the bus has moved, the lights stop flashing, or the bus driver signals that it is safe to pass
- D. As soon as the last child has left the roadway
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Three events release you, and the common thread is that the bus driver rather than the passing motorist decides when the crossing is finished. Judging it yourself from the children you can see is exactly the assessment the rule takes out of your hands, since a child you have not seen may still be crossing.
37. Two Texas drivers are charged on the same day: one drove past a stopped school bus, the other failed to slow for a tow truck on the shoulder. Neither caused injury. How do their maximum first-offence fines compare?
- A. The Move Over offence is higher, at $4,000 against $1,250
- B. The school bus offence is higher, at $4,000 against $1,250
- C. They are the same — both carry a maximum of $1,250
- D. The school bus offence is lower, at $250 against $1,250
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
Texas puts both at the same $1,250 ceiling for a first offence, which reflects a common purpose: each protects someone who is outside a vehicle on or beside the roadway. The $4,000 figure exists but belongs only to a Move Over violation that causes serious injury, so it does not apply where neither driver caused harm.
38. A 20-year-old Texas driver is stopped and a test shows a small but detectable amount of alcohol, well under 0.08. What is the position?
- A. A civil violation only, with no criminal consequence
- B. An offence only if the reading reaches 0.02
- C. No offence, since the reading is below 0.08
- D. It is the criminal offence of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol by a Minor, because Texas allows no detectable amount for drivers under 21
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Texas sets the under-21 threshold at any detectable amount rather than at a numeric floor, and classifies the result as a criminal offence rather than an administrative one. States that use a .02 cutoff leave a band below it where nothing happens; Texas does not.
39. For the purposes of the Texas zero tolerance rule, who counts as a minor?
- A. Anyone under 18 years of age
- B. Anyone holding a provisional licence
- C. Anyone under 21 years of age
- D. Anyone under 21 who has held a licence for less than two years
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
The definition is set at 21 for alcohol purposes, which does not line up with the age of majority for other purposes. Licence tenure and licence type play no part in it, so a 20-year-old with five years of driving experience is covered exactly as a 16-year-old is.
40. A driver holding a commercial licence is operating their personal car at 0.06 BAC. Which limit applies?
- A. 0.00, because commercial drivers may not drink at all
- B. 0.08, because the 0.04 commercial limit attaches to operating a commercial vehicle rather than to holding the licence
- C. 0.04, because they hold a commercial licence
- D. 0.02, because commercial drivers are held to a stricter standard at all times
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
The lower threshold is tied to the vehicle being operated, so the same person faces 0.04 behind a rig and 0.08 in their own car. Reading the limit as a property of the licence holder rather than of the vehicle is the error the alternatives are built on.
41. A driver arrested for impaired driving refuses to give a breath sample, reasoning that without evidence there can be no case. What has this overlooked?
- A. Implied consent — the act of driving is itself consent to chemical testing, and refusal brings an automatic suspension of its own
- B. Nothing; refusing is a sound strategy with no separate consequence
- C. That the officer may take a sample by force
- D. That refusal is admissible only if recorded on video
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The suspension for refusing runs on its own track, which means a driver can defeat the impaired driving charge and still lose their licence for the refusal. The calculation the driver made ignores that they are facing two separate proceedings rather than one.
42. A downward-pointing triangle in red and white stands at the entrance to a road you are joining. What is required of you?
- A. Come to a complete stop in every case
- B. Merge at the speed of surrounding traffic without slowing
- C. Slow down, be prepared to stop, and give way to traffic already on the road
- D. Stop only if a vehicle is within 100 feet
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C
A yield requires you to give way, which may or may not mean stopping depending on what is coming. The octagon is what commands an unconditional stop, and treating a yield as a mandatory stop causes its own problem by surprising the driver behind you.
43. You are on a multi-lane road and the line separating your lane from the next is white. What does that tell you?
- A. Passing is prohibited
- B. The lane beside you is a shoulder
- C. The next lane carries oncoming traffic
- D. The traffic in the next lane is travelling in the same direction as you
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
White separates same-direction lanes and yellow separates opposing traffic, which makes line colour the fastest way to read an unfamiliar road at night. Whether the line is solid or broken is a separate question about whether you may cross it.
44. A five-sided sign appears at the roadside. What does the shape indicate?
- A. A school zone or school crossing
- B. A railroad crossing ahead
- C. A pedestrian crossing not associated with a school
- D. A hospital or emergency facility
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The pentagon is unique to schools, and the round sign is unique to railroads, so shape alone identifies both before any symbol is legible. That redundancy is deliberate: the message must survive a sign that is dirty, faded or partly obscured.
45. You approach an intersection where the signal has failed and is flashing red in all directions. How do you proceed?
- A. Proceed on the assumption that cross traffic has a flashing yellow
- B. Treat it as an all-way stop, stopping and then going in turn as it is safe
- C. Treat it as a yield and slow without stopping
- D. Wait for the signal to be restored
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B
A flashing red carries the meaning of a stop sign, so an intersection flashing red in every direction behaves as an all-way stop with arrival order deciding turns. Assuming the cross street has a flashing yellow is the dangerous guess, because it converts your stop into a rolling entry.
46. The signal turns yellow when you are already so close to the intersection that hard braking would be needed to stop. What is the correct action?
- A. Continue through, since the instruction is to stop only if it is safe to do so
- B. Accelerate to clear before the red
- C. Stop in the intersection and wait
- D. Brake hard and stop before the line in every case
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A
The yellow warns that red is coming and asks you to stop if you safely can, which means a driver already committed should clear the intersection rather than brake into the vehicle behind. Neither accelerating nor stopping inside the intersection is a permitted resolution of the same dilemma.
47. Turning left into a gas station across the oncoming lane, mid-block, no signal. Who goes first?
- A. Whichever vehicle arrived in view first
- B. The vehicle on the wider roadway
- C. You — mid-block turns take priority
- D. Oncoming traffic — the turning driver waits
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Any left turn across an oncoming stream yields to it, at intersections and driveways alike. First-in-view and road width are not right-of-way rules; the crossing manoeuvre is what assigns the duty, and it is yours.
48. The crossing gates are down but no train has appeared after a long wait. Drivers behind you honk. What does Texas law allow?
- A. Easing around the gates after checking both ways
- B. Crossing once faster vehicles behind you do
- C. Crossing if the lights have stopped flashing
- D. Nothing but waiting — driving around lowered gates is illegal
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Going around lowered gates is against the law regardless of how long they stay down or what the queue behind thinks. Gates can lag a second train you cannot see; the prohibition holds until they rise.
49. Traffic backs up just past the rails and your car would sit on them if you followed. What is the rule?
- A. Stop on them only in daylight
- B. Cross halfway and wait on the median
- C. Stop on them briefly if the queue is moving
- D. Never stop on the tracks — hold back until the far side is open
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Never stop on the tracks — enter the crossing only when the exit side has room for your whole vehicle. A queue that inches forward can strand you exactly where a train needs the space, and trains cannot stop for you.
50. Between a freight train and a passenger car at a crossing, who holds the right-of-way under Texas law?
- A. Whoever reaches the crossing first
- B. The car, because crossings favor the road
- C. It depends on the posted speed
- D. The train, always
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D
Texas law requires drivers to yield the right of way to trains — full stop. Arrival order and posted limits are road concepts; a train's stopping distance is measured in the better part of a mile, so the law does not negotiate.

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The TX Road Signs is administered by Texas Department of Public Safety (Driver License Division).

This free TX Road Signs practice test has 50 original questions written to Texas Department of Public Safety (Driver License Division)'s official content outline, last checked against it on August 6, 2026. Every question shows a worked explanation, and nothing here requires a signup.

As of 2026, the TX Road Signs exam fee is $0 (written knowledge test (question count + passing score not published by TxDPS)).

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Official sources

Every exam fact on this page traces to a primary document published by the body that administers the exam.

Railroad Crossing Safety Tips — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Move Over or Slow Down — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Texting and Cellphone Laws — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Impaired Driving and Penalties — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
School Bus Safety — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Speed Limits — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Seat Belt and Car Seat Guidelines — TxDOTTexas Department of Transportationtxdot.gov
Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7)Texas Department of Public Safetydps.texas.gov

Last verified against the official exam content outline: August 6, 2026

Frequently asked questions

What do these Texas practice questions cover?

The national material every state shares — sign shapes and colours, line markings, signals and right-of-way order — plus the Texas rules that carry the largest penalties: Move Over or Slow Down, the school bus divided-highway exception, the two-step speed structure and the zero tolerance rule for drivers under 21.

Which Texas details are most often answered wrong?

Three. The Move Over reduction is 20 mph below the posted limit rather than a flat 20 mph. The statutory maximum speed is 70 rather than the 85 posted on one purpose-built road. And the under-21 alcohol rule has no numeric threshold at all, so a reading well below any familiar figure is still a criminal offence.

Are these real Texas DPS test questions?

No. No legitimate provider has live test items. These are written to the same rules the handbook and the state agencies publish, so a strong score indicates your recall of those rules holds up rather than that you have seen the questions you will face.

If you learned to drive in another state, what should you check first?

The school bus rule. Texas releases you when the bus is on the opposite side of a divided highway; several states, New York among them, do not. Whichever way your home state goes, the exception does not travel across the state line with you, and this is the rule most likely to produce a confident wrong answer.