Work out right of way at intersections and driveways

By Jacob Alford

Right of way depends on the kind of intersection, driveway or entry, the vehicles’ positions and timing, and the applicable controls. Preserve the geometry and visibility as well as what each driver did. A favored movement does not excuse every later failure to respond to a danger. The code is a starting point for that factual sequence.

Questions this group helps answer:

• Who yields at an uncontrolled intersection?
• What changes when one road ends or is unpaved?
• Who yields when leaving a driveway or parking area?
• What does an immediate hazard mean for a left turn?
• What if the other driver was also traveling improperly?

33. Failed to yield right of way open intersection

Meaning in the report: A vehicle failed to yield at an intersection without traffic signs or signals.

What needs explaining: Apply the particular intersection configuration, rather than assuming a single rule covers every uncontrolled intersection. Which vehicle approached first, from which side, and was one road terminating or unpaved?

Limits and qualifications: The statutory priority changes with the intersection facts.

Related law and scope: The rules distinguish a small road meeting a divided/three-or-more-lane road, unpaved meeting paved, vehicles from the right, and a terminating road. They require stopping/yielding to the specified hazardous/entered traffic and safe entry.

Sources: TxDOT definition, page 139; Transportation §545.151(b),(c),(d),(e); Transportation §545.151(f) (related provision).

Further care: No single first-arrival shorthand replaces these priority rules. Subsection (f) supplies a conditional presumption for a collision/interference with traffic entitled to priority, not an unrestricted assignment of fault.

34. Failed to yield right of way private drive

Meaning in the report: A vehicle entered or crossed a road from an alley, building, private road or driveway without yielding as required.

What needs explaining: Identify the access point and the vehicle or pedestrian to whom the entering driver owed a duty. Where did the vehicle emerge, what could the driver see, and who was already using the road or sidewalk?

Limits and qualifications: Driveway emergence can implicate both roadway traffic and sidewalk users; do not overlook either.

Related law and scope: Section 545.155 requires yielding to vehicles approaching the highway being entered/crossed from an alley, building or private drive. Section 545.256, in a business/residence district, adds a stop before the sidewalk area, yielding to pedestrians/sidewalk users, and yielding to approaching roadway vehicles.

Sources: TxDOT definition, page 139; Transportation §545.155; Transportation §545.256.

Further care: The district limitation attaches to §545.256, not to all of §545.155. Current §545.256(2) includes sidewalk users, added effective 2025.

37. Failed to yield right of way turning left

Meaning in the report: A driver turning left at an intersection or into an alley, private road or driveway failed to yield to opposing traffic.

What needs explaining: Establish the opposing vehicle’s proximity and hazard when the turn began. What were the approach speeds, sightlines, signal phases and available gap?

Limits and qualifications: The statute uses an immediate-hazard test; the factor does not make every later collision during a left turn conclusive.

Related law and scope: Yield to opposing traffic that is in the intersection or sufficiently close to it to be an immediate hazard when turning left at an intersection or into an alley/private road/driveway.

Sources: TxDOT definition, page 139; Transportation §545.152.

Further care: The manual’s any approaching opposite-direction vehicle wording omits the in-intersection/immediate-hazard condition. Distance, timing and lawful movement matter.

Attorney reviewed by Jacob Alford · November 11, 2026