U turns — Utah Permit Test

A driver may never make a U-turn on a curve or near the top of a hill where they cannot see or be seen from both directions for 500 feet.

A U-turn takes several seconds with the car sideways. Five hundred feet is the warning an oncoming driver needs.

Never make a U-turn on any curve near the top of a hill where you cannot see or be seen from both directions for 500 feet, where prohibited by an official traffic control device, on a railroad track, railroad grade crossing, or a freeway.

A driver may never make a U-turn on a railroad track, at a railroad grade crossing, or on a freeway.

Two of those are places you must never stop at all, and the third is full of traffic arriving at seventy miles an hour.

Never make a U-turn on any curve near the top of a hill where you cannot see or be seen from both directions for 500 feet, where prohibited by an official traffic control device, on a railroad track, railroad grade crossing, or a freeway.

Each Utah city has its own laws about U-turns, so a driver should know the law of the city they are driving in.

This is one rule the handbook cannot settle for you. The same maneuver can be legal on one street and not the next.

Each city has its laws concerning U-turns. Be sure you know the specific law of the city in which you are driving.

A U-turn should be made only on a street or highway wide enough to allow the turn from the left-hand lane or just right of the center line.

If the road is too narrow you end up reversing in the middle of it, which is a three-point turn nobody planned.

A U-turn should only be made on a street or highway sufficiently wide enough to allow a turn to be made from the left-hand lane or just right of the center line or center of the street.

A driver making a U-turn signals in the direction of the turn, head checks over that shoulder, and performs a traffic check while completing it.

The turn crosses every lane on the road. Checking once at the start is not enough to get all the way round.

When traffic is clear, perform a traffic check while completing the turn.

How far must a Utah driver see in both directions to make a U-turn?

500 feet. A U-turn takes several seconds with the car sideways. Five hundred feet is the warning an oncoming driver needs. Utah Driver Handbook 2026-2027, p.38: “Never make a U-turn on any curve near the top of a hill where you cannot see or be seen from both directions for 500 feet, where prohibited by an official traffic control device, on a railroad track, railroad grade crossing, or a freeway.”