Minnesota Traffic Laws and Rules of the Road
This domain tests whether you can state Minnesota's road rules accurately and apply them to the situations examiners favor: right-of-way, school buses, emergency vehicles, GDL limits, and impairment. Minnesota expects an instructor to give the rule, the exception, and the reason behind it.
Core rules to teach
- Speed: 30 mph in urban districts unless posted, 55 mph on most rural roads, 70 mph on rural interstate sections. Teach 'posted beats default' every time.
- Crosswalks: stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, marked or unmarked, and never pass a vehicle stopped at a crosswalk.
- School buses: stop for flashing red lights and the stop arm on undivided roads. On a divided highway with a median separating the directions, oncoming traffic does not stop; traffic behind the bus always stops.
- Move Over: change lanes away from any stopped emergency, tow, or maintenance vehicle with lights, or slow substantially if a lane change is unsafe.
- Phones: hands-free since Aug. 1, 2019; provisional licensees under 18 may not use a phone at all except for emergencies.
- Impairment: 0.08 BAC for adults, zero tolerance for drivers under 21, implied consent to testing, open-bottle prohibition.
Worked example
A four-lane divided road with a raised median: a school bus stops on the opposite side with red lights. Correct answer: continue, because the median separates the roadways. If that median were only a painted turn lane, you would stop.
Traps
Assuming rural two-lane speed is 65; forgetting unmarked crosswalks count; treating Move Over as advice rather than law; confusing the provisional night limit (midnight to 5 a.m., first six months) with the passenger rule.