Texas DMV Permit Test Safe Driving and Sharing the Road Summary

Texas law defines nighttime as 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise. Your headlights and other required lights must be on during that time.

Wrong choices

• From sunset until sunrise only: Sunset to sunrise is close, but the legal time starts 30 minutes after sunset and ends 30 minutes before sunrise.
• From 1 hour after sunset until 1 hour before sunrise: One hour is too long a gap; the rule uses 30 minutes.
• Only when street lights are not working: Street lights do not replace your headlights at night.

Texas law requires you to switch to low beams when an oncoming vehicle is within 500 feet, so you do not blind the other driver.

Wrong choices

• 300 feet: 300 feet is the rule for a vehicle you are following, not one coming toward you.
• 1,000 feet: 1,000 feet is the visibility distance for when lights must be on, not the dimming rule.
• 100 feet: 100 feet is much too close; the other driver would already be blinded.

In Texas, when a school bus is stopped with its red lights flashing (or stop arm out), drivers coming from either direction must stop. Stay stopped until the bus moves again, the lights go off, or the bus driver signals you to go.

Wrong choices

• Keep going slowly, since the bus is in the other lane: On an undivided road, drivers in the opposite lane must stop too.
• Stop, then go when you see no children nearby: You may not decide on your own that it is safe; wait for the bus to move, the lights to stop, or the driver's signal.
• Pass carefully at 10 mph or less: Passing at any speed is against the law while the red lights are flashing.

Texas's Move Over or Slow Down law says to leave the lane next to a stopped police, fire, EMS, TxDOT, tow truck, or similar vehicle with warning lights on, or slow to 20 mph below the posted limit.

Wrong choices

• Keep your speed and stay alert as you pass: Keeping your speed next to a stopped emergency vehicle breaks the law.
• Stop behind the police car until it leaves: You do not have to stop; you move over or slow down.
• Honk to let the officer know you are passing: Honking does not meet the law and can startle people working there.

If a train is coming, your life comes first. Get everyone out right away and move away from the tracks, walking toward the train at an angle so flying parts do not hit you. Then call 911 or the number on the blue sign at the crossing.

Wrong choices

• Stay in the car and keep trying to start it: Trying to restart wastes seconds you may not have.
• Stay in the car with your seat belt fastened: A seat belt cannot protect you from a train.
• Get out and try to push the car off the tracks: Pushing the car keeps you in the path of the train.

In Texas, when a construction or maintenance work zone is marked with signs and workers are present, the minimum and maximum fines for traffic offenses there are doubled.

Wrong choices

• Fines are doubled at all times, even at night with no workers: The doubling applies when workers are present, not at all times.
• Only speeding tickets are doubled in the work zone: It is not only speeding; other traffic offenses in the zone are doubled too.
• Workers can write you a ticket for twice the fine: Workers do not write tickets; police officers do.

In a skid, take your foot off the gas, look and steer in the direction you want to go, and avoid hard braking. Small, smooth steering keeps the tires gripping the road.

Wrong choices

• Slam on the brakes as hard as you can: Slamming the brakes can lock the wheels and make the skid worse.
• Speed up to pull the car out of the skid: Speeding up makes it harder for the tires to grip.
• Turn the steering wheel sharply the other way: Jerking the wheel can send the car spinning the other way.

Besides nighttime, Texas requires your lights any time that rain, fog, or other conditions make it so a person or vehicle is not clearly visible 1,000 feet ahead.

Wrong choices

• Only after the sun has gone down: The rule also applies in the daytime when it is hard to see.
• When you can't clearly see people or vehicles 100 feet ahead: 100 feet is far too short; the law uses 1,000 feet.
• Only when your windshield wipers are on high speed: The law is based on how far you can see, not on your wiper speed.

When you are following another vehicle, Texas law says you may not use high beams within 300 feet. The glare in the other driver's mirrors can blind them.

Wrong choices

• 500 feet: 500 feet is the rule for an oncoming vehicle.
• 200 feet: 200 feet is closer than the law allows with high beams.
• 1,000 feet: 1,000 feet is the visibility distance for turning lights on.

Texas law does not require you to stop for a school bus that is on a different roadway of a highway with separate roadways. Still slow down and watch for children. If the bus is on your roadway, you must stop.

Wrong choices

• Stop until the red lights stop flashing: Stopping is required on an undivided road, but not for a bus on the other roadway of a divided highway.
• Stop, then go on when the bus driver waves: You do not need to stop at all here, so you need not wait for a wave.
• Slow to 20 mph below the speed limit: Slowing 20 mph below the limit is the Move Over/Slow Down rule, not the school bus rule.