Speed limits
You are driving on a residential street and there are no speed limit signs posted. What is the speed limit?
- 25 mph. Correct answer
- 15 mph.
- 35 mph.
Why
With nothing posted, a business or residential district is 25 mph, and that is the default to fall back on for ordinary city streets. Fifteen mph is the handbook's number for tighter situations: a blind intersection, which is one with no stop signs at any corner, and an alley. Thirty-five mph appears in the handbook as a ceiling of a different kind, the posted limit above which neighborhood electric and low-speed vehicles are not allowed on a road at all. The same 25 mph also covers the 500 feet around a school while children are outside or crossing, which is worth knowing because a school can sit on a residential street where nothing else changes.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is 25 mph..
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Business or Residential Districts , page 52
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Blind Intersections , page 51
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Sharing the Road › Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) and Low-speed Vehicles (LSVs) , page 46
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Around Children , page 50
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Alleys , page 51