Dual use and center turn lanes — Tennessee Permit Test
Dual use and center turn lanes on the Tennessee permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A dual use lane has both a turn arrow and a straight arrow; you may go straight or make the shown turn from it.
Drivers beside you may also be turning or going straight, so read the arrows before you choose.
You can proceed straight or make the indicated turn from these lanes as shown by the pavement markings and/or signs found at the intersection.
A shared center turn lane cannot be used for passing and cannot be used for travel farther than 300 feet.
Driving down the center lane puts you nose to nose with someone turning from the other side.
These lanes cannot be used for passing and cannot be used for travel farther than 300 feet.
A shared center turn lane is marked on each side by solid yellow and broken yellow lines.
Spotting the paired lines tells you the middle lane is for left turns from both directions, not a travel lane.
These lanes are marked on each side by solid yellow and broken yellow lines.
If a special lane has been provided for left turns, do not make a left turn from any other lane.
A left turn from the through lane cuts across the turn lane and hits whoever is in it.
If a special lane has been provided for making left turns, do not make a left turn from any other lane.
Do not travel in the center turn lane to reach a left turn lane at an intersection.
The center lane is for turning into driveways. Using it as a highway to the light meets drivers turning from the other way.
Do NOT travel in the center turn lane to access a left turn lane at an intersection.
When vehicles enter a center turn lane from opposite directions, the first vehicle to enter has the right-of-way.
Two cars nosing into the same lane from both ends need a rule for who goes, or they meet in the middle.
When vehicles enter the turn lane from opposite directions, the first vehicle to enter the lane has the right-of-way.
You may turn from a side street or driveway into a center turn lane, stop, and wait to merge into the lane on your right.
Crossing two busy lanes at once needs two gaps together. Waiting in the middle lets you take one at a time.
You may turn from a side street or driveway into a shared center turn lane, stop, and wait for traffic to clear before merging into traffic in the lane immediately to the right.
On the test
A lane has both a turn arrow and a straight arrow. What may you do from it?
Go straight or make the turn shown. Drivers beside you may also be turning or going straight, so read the arrows before you choose. Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.60: “You can proceed straight or make the indicated turn from these lanes as shown by the pavement markings and/or signs found at the intersection.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, published by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-03.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TN.pdf (Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, information current as of July 1, 2022, Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TN.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TN-exam.html (tn.gov/safety/driver-services/classd/teengdl/knowledge-test-online.html as served on 2026-10-03; the only source for both exam figures)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json, TN entry -- the folio marker and its basis, the extraction-flag score and its welded compounds, and the record of where the exam shape comes from
- docs/plans/how-to-build-laws.md (the runbook this corpus follows)