Speed limits
You are on a California highway and there are no speed limit signs in sight. What is the maximum speed limit?
- 65 mph. Correct answer
- 55 mph.
- 70 mph.
Why
Unless something is posted, the handbook's ceiling on most California highways is 65 mph. The figure that trips people up is 55: that is what a two-lane undivided highway allows, and what anything towing a trailer allows, not the general ceiling, so the road you are on decides which of the two applies. Seventy mph is not a California limit in the handbook at all. And 65 is a maximum rather than a target, because the Basic Speed Law caps you at whatever speed is safe right now, whatever the sign says: the number of vehicles around you, the road surface, the weather and whoever else is on or crossing the road all pull the safe speed below the posted one.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is 65 mph..