Passing — Texas Permit Test
Passing on the Texas permit test — 10 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Before passing, a driver must have enough time and space to overtake the car ahead and return to the right lane before an approaching car comes within 200 feet.
Two cars closing head-on cover ground faster than either of them is driving. Two hundred feet is the cushion Texas asks for.
Be sure you have enough time and space to overtake the car ahead and return to the right lane before an approaching car comes within 200 feet of you
Before passing on a two-lane road a driver checks the rearview mirror, the side mirrors, and looks over their shoulder into the blind spot to make sure no other vehicle is passing them.
The car already alongside you is the one the mirrors do not show. Passing into it is a two-car crash at combined speed.
side mirrors, and look over your shoulder in your blind spot to make sure the roadway is clear and no other vehicles are passing you.
A driver passing on a two-lane road passes on the left and does not return to the right lane until the overtaken vehicle can be seen in the rearview mirror.
Cutting back too soon clips the front of the car you just passed. The mirror is the test that you are far enough ahead.
car you have just passed in your rearview mirror before returning to the right lane
A driver may pass on the right only where the road is clear of parked vehicles and other obstructions and is wide enough for two or more lanes in each direction.
Passing on the right is where the other driver is least likely to look. Texas allows it only where the road is built for it.
The road is clear of parked vehicles or other lane obstructions and is wide enough for two or more lanes in each direction
A driver may pass on a paved shoulder when the vehicle being passed is slowing or stopped on the main traveled part of the highway, disabled, or preparing to turn left.
The shoulder is not a lane, and this is the narrow case where using it is allowed. The car ahead has stopped being traffic.
You may pass on a paved shoulder when the vehicle you are passing is slowing or stopped on the main traveled portion of the highway, disabled, or preparing to make a left turn
A driver must not pass on the right by driving off the paved portion of the highway.
Off the pavement there is no grip and no room. The car ends up in the ditch or back across the road.
Do not pass on the right by driving off the paved portion of the highway
A driver being passed must not increase their speed and must stay in their lane.
Speeding up strands the passing car alongside with oncoming traffic coming. It is the commonest way a pass turns into a crash.
Do not increase your speed
A driver being passed on the left where the lanes are not marked should safely move as far to the right as they can.
With no lines to hold, both cars are guessing. Moving right makes the gap the other driver needs.
Safely move as far to the right as you can when being passed on the left and the lanes are not marked
A driver should tap the horn when necessary to avoid surprising the driver ahead when passing.
The driver ahead may be about to move left for something you cannot see. A tap is the warning that you are there.
Tap your horn when necessary to avoid surprising the driver ahead
When passing, a driver must not drive or linger in the other driver's blind spot, and should either pass or slow down to get out of it.
Sitting where they cannot see you means they will change lanes into you. There are only two ways out and both are deliberate.
Either pass the other driver or slow down so you are not in another driver’s blind spot
On the test
How much room must a Texas driver leave an approaching car when finishing a pass?
At least 200 feet. Two cars closing head-on cover ground faster than either of them is driving. Two hundred feet is the cushion Texas asks for. Texas Driver Handbook, p.39: “Be sure you have enough time and space to overtake the car ahead and return to the right lane before an approaching car comes within 200 feet of you”
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)