Lane use signs — Texas Permit Test
Lane use signs on the Texas permit test — 9 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A high occupancy vehicle preferential lane sign marks a lane that buses and carpool vehicles may use only between the hours shown on it.
The lane is reserved for part of the day and ordinary for the rest. The hours on the sign are the whole rule.
Lane: Buses and vehicles used for carpools may use this lane only between the hours of 6 a.m
A slower traffic keep right sign tells a driver to stay in the right-hand lane if they are driving slower than other vehicles on the road.
Slow traffic in a fast lane makes everyone else change lanes around it. That is where the passing crashes start.
Stay in the right-hand lane if you are driving slower than other vehicles on the road
On a road with more than one lane in the same direction, slower traffic should travel in a lane other than the farthest left, which is for passing only.
The left lane is a tool for getting past, not a place to sit. Sitting there turns passing into weaving.
slower traffic should travel in a lane other than the farthest left lane
The center lane marked for left turns is used only by vehicles turning left, and never for passing or moving through traffic.
Two cars using it as a through lane meet head-on in the middle of the road. It only works if everybody is leaving it.
The center lane is only used for vehicles turning left, and should never be used for passing or moving through traffic
A driver should enter the center left-turn lane only at a point where there is time to slow down or stop and make a safe left turn.
Entering it half a mile early makes it a travel lane. The distance is what tells a driver they have entered it too soon.
lane is at a point where the vehicle will have time to slow down or stop to make a safe left turn
A sign reading that vehicles in the right lane must turn right applies at the next intersection unless the sign shows a different turning point.
The lane commits you before you reach the corner. Reading it late means being in the wrong lane with no way out.
Vehicles driving in the right lane must turn right at the next intersection unless the sign indicates a different turning point
Lane-use control signals are overhead signals, and a red X above a lane means a driver should not drive in that lane.
The lane below it may be carrying traffic the other way in a minute. The signal is the only warning of that.
If a red X appears above a lane, a driver should not drive in that lane
A steady yellow X above a lane means a driver should prepare to safely vacate the lane it is over, because a lane control change is being made.
It is the warning that the lane is about to change direction. Leaving it now is easier than leaving it later.
A steady yellow X means a driver should prepare to safely vacate the lane over which the signal is located because a lane control change is being made
A steady downward green arrow means a driver is permitted to drive in the lane the arrow is over.
It is the only one of the three lane signals that means go. The other two are about getting out.
A steady downward green arrow means a driver is permitted to drive in the lane over which the arrow signal is located
On the test
Who may use a Texas high occupancy vehicle lane during its posted hours?
Buses and vehicles used for carpools. The lane is reserved for part of the day and ordinary for the rest. The hours on the sign are the whole rule. Texas Driver Handbook, p.30: “Lane: Buses and vehicles used for carpools may use this lane only between the hours of 6 a.m”
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 Texas Driver Handbook, published by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pdf (Texas Driver Handbook, form DL-7, Revised January 2026, Texas Department of Public Safety, retrieved 2026-09-14 from dps.texas.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, nonLawPages, the four extraction traps and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)
- docs/plans/texas-exam-shape.md (the search that established that no official source states the question count, and the two decoys it disposes of)