Texas Default Speed Limits

30

Source: Texas Driver Handbook (Rev. January 2026), Chapter 8, Table 22: Speed Limits, Urban District · Verified Sep 2026

30

Source: Texas Driver Handbook (Rev. January 2026), Chapter 8, Table 22: Speed Limits, Urban District · Verified Sep 2026

70

Source: Texas Driver Handbook (Rev. January 2026), Chapter 8, Table 22: Speed Limits, Highway numbered by Texas or the U.S. outside an urban district, passenger cars · Verified Sep 2026

Texas publishes no statewide school zone number. The prima facie limits in state law cover urban districts, alleys, highways and beaches, and none of them names a school zone. Instead, a city council, a county commissioners court or the Texas Transportation Commission lowers the limit near a particular school after an engineering and traffic investigation, and a county may drop a road within 500 feet of a school to 20 miles per hour. What binds you is the number on the sign, and only while the zone is active: the posted hours or the flashing yellow beacon.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 545.352 (prima facie speed limits, which name no school zone), Sec. 545.355(b)(2)(B) (county roads within 500 feet of a school may be set at 20 mph), Sec. 545.356 (municipal authority to alter limits) and Sec. 545.357 (annual hearings on limits near schools). · Verified Sep 2026

Eighty is as fast as an interstate gets in Texas, and only on stretches of I-10 and I-20 across ten West Texas counties that the Transportation Commission has posted at that speed. Everywhere else the interstate maximum is lower. The 85 you may have heard about is real but is not an interstate: state law lets the commission post up to 85 on a part of the state highway system built for it, which in practice means the toll lanes of SH 130 southeast of Austin. Neither number is a target. Both are ceilings the commission may set, and the limit that governs you is the one on the sign.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 545.352(h-1): the commission "may establish a speed limit of 80 miles per hour on a part of Interstate Highway 10 or Interstate Highway 20 in Crockett, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kerr, Kimble, Pecos, Reeves, Sutton, or Ward County." Sec. 545.352(h-2) separately allows "a speed limit not to exceed 85 miles per hour on a part of the state highway system" that is designed for it, which is not an interstate authority. Base limits are in Sec. 545.352(b). · Verified Sep 2026

Right on red is permitted in Texas after a complete stop, unless a sign prohibits the turn. Left on red is also permitted from a one-way street onto a one-way street, again after stopping and only where it is not prohibited. Texas Transportation Code Sec. 544.007(d) requires you to stop at a clearly marked stop line, or in its absence before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection. After stopping, standing until the intersection can be entered safely, and yielding the right of way to pedestrians and sidewalk users lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk and to other traffic lawfully using the intersection, you may turn right, or turn left if the intersecting streets are both one-way streets and a left turn is permissible. There is no statewide prohibition and no city-wide ban in Texas comparable to New York City's. Local prohibition is by posted sign only: Sec. 544.007(f) lets the Texas Transportation Commission, a municipal authority, or a county commissioners court prohibit a turn on steady red within its jurisdiction by posting notice at the intersection. Note two things drivers get wrong. First, the turn must follow a full stop and a yield to pedestrians, which Sec. 544.007(d) states explicitly. Second, do not turn against a steady red arrow unless a sign or a signal indication expressly allows it. The statute grants the turn to a driver facing only a steady red signal, and the handbook never addresses red arrows at all, so the arrow is not the circular red. A flashing red is different again: under Sec. 544.008 it means stop completely, then go when it is safe.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 544.007(d): "After stopping, standing until the intersection may be entered safely, and yielding right-of-way to pedestrians and sidewalk users lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk and other traffic lawfully using the intersection, the operator may: (1) turn right; or (2) turn left, if the intersecting streets are both one-way streets and a left turn is permissible"; Texas Driver Handbook (rev. Jan. 2026), Steady Red Light, p. 25 Sec. 544.007(d) grants the turn to an operator "facing only a steady red signal"; neither the statute nor the January 2026 handbook addresses a steady red arrow. · Verified Sep 2026