Your exam
50 questions. 40 correct to pass — you may miss 10.
Speed limits (when nothing is posted)
| Where | Limit |
|---|---|
| School zone | 20 mph |
| Municipal, business or residential area | 30 mph |
| Streets and highways | 55 mph |
| Rural interstate | 70 mph |
| Limited access highway | 70 mph |
Note the residential figure: 30, not the 25 most neighbouring states use.
There is no speeding buffer. The handbook names the belief that you are allowed 10 mph over as a myth, in those words. Tolerance from an officer is not permission, and it is not a defence.
Driving too slowly is also against Florida law.
Alcohol
| Driver | Limit | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 21 or over | .08 | administrative suspension |
| Under 21 | .02 | six-month suspension, automatically |
| Under 21 | .05 | plus a mandatory substance abuse course |
For drivers under 19 an evaluation is completed and the parents or guardians are notified of the result.
Refusing a breath, urine or blood test brings the same administrative suspension as failing one.
10 days. That is how long you have from the date of arrest to apply for a review hearing. The window runs from the arrest, not from the conviction or from receiving paperwork.
Parking distances — all five
| Distance | From |
|---|---|
| 15 feet | a fire hydrant |
| 20 feet | an intersection |
| 20 feet | the entrance to a fire, ambulance or rescue station |
| 30 feet | a flashing signal, stop sign or traffic signal |
| 30 feet | a rural mail box on a state highway — 8 am to 6 pm only |
| 50 feet | a railroad crossing |
The railroad figure is the biggest, and more than three times the hydrant one, so guessing it from the others gets it wrong. The mailbox rule is the only one limited to certain hours.
Move Over
Approaching a stopped emergency or service vehicle with flashing lights: move over a lane. If you cannot, reduce speed to 20 mph below the posted limit.
School buses — the median rule
On a two-way street, every driver in both directions stops. Stay stopped until the stop signal is withdrawn and all children are clear of the roadway.
Oncoming traffic may continue only where the highway is divided by a raised barrier or an unpaved median at least five feet wide. The handbook states plainly that painted lines and pavement markings are not barriers — a wide painted median looks like a divider and is not one.
If you are travelling in the same direction as the bus you always stop, whatever the median.
Fines and impact
- Speeding fines are doubled in active school and work zones.
- A Basic Driver Improvement course cuts the civil penalty by 9% on a non-criminal moving violation that does not require a court appearance.
- Double your speed and you quadruple the force of impact. Triple it and the force is nine times greater. Impact rises with the square of speed, which is why a small increase is never a small increase.
Curb and pavement colours
Yellow curbs usually mark no-parking zones near fire hydrants and intersections. Yellow or white diagonal stripes mark a fixed obstruction. Parking in, or driving through, a marked fire lane or safety zone is illegal.