Work zones — Texas Permit Test

Orange is the basic color for the traffic control devices used in construction and maintenance work zones.

The color change is the first warning the layout is temporary. Everything about the road ahead may be different today.

flashing arrow panels, and flag individuals. Orange is the basic color for these devices

In a construction and maintenance work zone a driver should be ready to slow down or stop as they approach workers and equipment.

The people are inches from the lane and cannot hear a car over the machinery. The driver is the one who has to act.

When you are in a construction and maintenance work zone, be prepared: 1. To slow down or stop as you approach workers and equipment

Traffic fines double for violations that occur in construction zones where workers are present.

The doubling is not about the driving. It is about who is standing beside it.

Fines double in a construction or maintenance work zone when workers are present anywhere in the construction zone

Most signs in work zones are diamond shaped, but a few are rectangular.

The shape carries over from ordinary warning signs. It is the color that has changed, not the outline.

Most signs in work zones are diamond shaped, but a few are rectangular

On meeting a channelizing device a driver should slow down and prepare to change lanes when it is safe to do so.

Drums and cones are telling you the lane is closing. Waiting for the last one is how the merge turns into a fight.

When you encounter any type of channelizing device: 1. Slow down and prepare to change lanes when it is safe to do so

A driver should maintain reduced speed until they clear the construction zone, and there should be a sign indicating they are leaving it.

The zone ends where the sign says, not where the cones thin out. Speeding up early is speeding up inside it.

When you encounter any type of channelizing device: 1. Slow down and prepare to change lanes when it is safe to do so. 2. Be prepared for drivers who wait until the last second to move to the open lane. 3. Maintain reduced speed until you clear the construction zone. There should be a sign indicating you are leaving the construction zone.

A driver should return to the normal driving lane only after checking traffic behind them.

Moving back is a lane change like any other. The car that came past while you were slowed is the one you will hit.

Return to the normal driving lane only after checking traffic behind you

Diagonal stripes on a barricade or vertical panel guide a driver toward the side the traffic is to pass, and stripes sloping downward to the right mean bear right.

The stripes point the way out, like an arrow lying on its side. Reading them wrong puts you into the work.

Stripes sloping downward to the right means the driver should bear to the right

A flag person wears an orange vest, shirt, or jacket and uses stop and slow paddles or red flags to direct traffic through a work zone.

They are standing in a live lane with nothing between them and the traffic. The clothing is what makes them visible in time.

orange vest, shirt, or jacket and uses stop/slow paddles or red flags to direct traffic through work zones

A flag person's instructions must be obeyed, and when instructed to stop a driver does so in their lane without veering right or left.

Veering puts the car where the flag person did not expect it. Holding the lane is what keeps them out of its path.

instructed to stop, do so in your lane and do not veer right or left

It is a violation to disobey the instructions, signals, warnings, or markings of a warning sign, or to drive around a barricade.

A barricade is there because the road behind it cannot be driven. Going around it is a decision, not a mistake.

It is a violation to disobey the instructions, signals, warnings, or markings of a warning sign, or to drive around a barricade

Driving around a barricade placed where water is over a road is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail.

Flood water hides a road that may not be there any more. Texas prices this one at jail because of how people die in it.

The offense is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and/or up to 180 days in jail when a warning sign or barricade has been placed at a location where water is over any portion of a road, street, or highway

An automated flagger assistance device controls road users through a temporary traffic zone and is remotely operated so the flag person can stand out of the lane of traffic.

It exists to take a person out of the traffic lane. The instruction it gives is the same one they would have given.

to be remotely operated, allowing a flag person to be positioned out of the lane of traffic

What is the basic color of Texas work zone traffic control devices?

Orange. The color change is the first warning the layout is temporary. Everything about the road ahead may be different today. Texas Driver Handbook, p.35: “flashing arrow panels, and flag individuals. Orange is the basic color for these devices”