Driver's License Test Prep
Texas Practice Traffic Lights

You reach a steady red light where both your street and the cross street carry one-way traffic. What does the Texas manual say about turning left?

  1. A.
    Left turns are prohibited under all circumstances at a steady red.
  2. B.
    Left turns are allowed only if a green arrow for left turns is showing.
  3. C.
    A left turn is permitted after stopping unless a posted sign prohibits it. Correct
  4. D.
    The turn is legal only when the cross street has no oncoming vehicles.
The Why

The answer is "A left turn is permitted after stopping unless a posted sign prohibits it."

The manual allows a left turn on red from a one-way street onto a one-way street, unless a posted sign forbids it. Option A is the trap for drivers who remember 'right on red' and generalize the two-way ban on left turns to every intersection.

Why the others miss

The traps in the wrong answers

A. Left turns are prohibited under all circumstances at a steady red.

Ignores the one-way-to-one-way exception written directly into the red-light rule. Applies the ordinary two-way ban and forgets that Texas carves out one-way streets specifically.

B. Left turns are allowed only if a green arrow for left turns is showing.

Adds a green-arrow requirement the one-way allowance does not carry. Confuses this permission with the separate protected left-turn setup that does need an arrow.

D. The turn is legal only when the cross street has no oncoming vehicles.

Invents an oncoming-traffic condition; on two one-way streets there is no oncoming direction from the cross street. Imports the yield-to-oncoming rule from left turns on green, which does not fit the one-way case.

The Rule

This question tests your knowledge of Traffic Lights in Texas. Source: Texas Driver Manual, "Traffic Signals (Steady Red Light (Stop))," p.25..

More from this topic

Related Texas questions

More than a book

You just took one Texas question apart. The book does it for the whole test.

The Texas book unlocks a free companion: an adaptive study plan, progress synced across your devices, a denser laminate cheat sheet, and a test-day walkthrough. Verify your copy once, usually in seconds; there's nothing extra to buy.

Get the book on Amazon

$18.99 paperback, free companion included.

Free study plan

Your free Texas study plan

A short run of study emails for the Texas DPS test: what to drill, the rules people trip on, and a final pre-test checklist. The printable cheat sheet is free to grab either way.

One email a few times a month. No spam, unsubscribe anytime. Privacy.