Your road is unpaved and it crosses a paved road at an intersection with no signs or signals. Who has the right-of-way?
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A.
The driver going straight through the intersection.
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B.
Vehicles on the paved road have the right-of-way. Correct
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C.
Whichever driver reaches the intersection first has priority.
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D.
Vehicles on the unpaved road, because they have less traction.
The answer is "Vehicles on the paved road have the right-of-way."
Where an unpaved road meets a paved road, the unpaved-road driver yields to traffic on the paved road, no matter who reached the intersection first. The pavement rule settles the question before the right-side rule for uncontrolled intersections ever comes into play. Wrong answer C applies the four-way-stop habit of letting whichever driver arrived first proceed, which the paved-road rule overrides.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. The driver going straight through the intersection.
Direction of travel does not enter the paved-road yield rule. This answer carries over the left-turn rule that a driver going straight has priority over one turning, and applies it where the surface difference decides the yield.
C. Whichever driver reaches the intersection first has priority.
At this kind of uncontrolled intersection, the paved-road rule controls; arrival order does not override the duty of the unpaved-road driver to yield. This answer applies the four-way-stop first-come-first-served habit to an intersection where pavement type settles the yield first.
D. Vehicles on the unpaved road, because they have less traction.
The rule assigns the yield by road surface, not by which driver has less traction. This answer reaches for a fairness intuition that the driver with worse grip deserves the break, which the paved-versus-unpaved rule does not consider.
This question tests your knowledge of Right of Way in Texas. Source: Texas Driver Manual, "Chapter 4: Right-of-Way, Unpaved Road Intersecting a Paved Road," p.20..
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