1. A speed-limit sign does not end at the next junction

Zeichen 274 sets a Streckenverbot — a limit tied to a stretch of road. It runs until one of exactly three things happens: a sign from the 278–282 family lifts it, a new Zeichen 274 replaces it, or a Zusatzzeichen's stated length runs out. A junction is none of those. The administrative instruction (VwV-StVO) says the sign should be repeated where unfamiliar drivers join — a recommendation to the authority, not a cancellation clause for you.

2. Start-stop is not "engine off"

You may hold a phone only when the vehicle is stationary and the engine is completely switched off — and §23 Abs. 1b StVO says in so many words that an automatic start-stop shutdown does not count, nor does an electric drivetrain sitting silently at rest. So: red light, engine "off" because the car did it for you, phone in hand → the offence is complete. Standard cost 100 € and one point (Bußgeldkatalog, indicative, last verified 2026-08-03).

3. Trams do not always have priority

"Trams always win" is a driving-school myth. A tram running on the carriageway is a Fahrzeug under §8 StVO like anything else — at an unsigned junction rechts vor links applies to it too, and its driver must obey priority signs. Its real privileges are narrow and absolute:

4. The 0.0 ‰ rule is §24c StVG, not §24a

§24a StVG is the general 0.5 ‰ limit. §24c StVG is the separate zero rule, and it has two independent triggers: being inside the two-year Probezeit, or being under 21. Either one alone makes the limit zero, so finishing probation early does not buy you the 0.5 ‰ allowance at 20 — and the same sentence bans THC. Study material that cites §24a here is quoting the wrong paragraph, which matters the moment a question asks you which one applies.

5. Coming out of a car park is not "rechts vor links"

Leaving a property, a petrol station, a car park or a verkehrsberuhigter Bereich is §10 StVO, not §8. Two roads are not meeting, so priority never arises. §10 imposes the strictest standard in the whole StVO: you must exclude any endangerment of others — including the pedestrians already walking along the pavement you are crossing. The exit sign for a calmed zone (Zeichen 325.2) spells it out: Beim Ausfahren ist § 10 zu beachten.

6. The bus rule has no "inside towns" limit

Two separate duties, and the second is the one people mis-state:

7. Nobody legislated "200, 100, 50 metres" for the warning triangle

§15 StVO requires you to secure a broken-down vehicle in ausreichender Entfernung — at a sufficient distance — and mentions roughly 100 m. The neat ladder of 200 m on the Autobahn, 100 m on a country road and 50 m in town is Fahrschule teaching, not statute. It is good practice and worth following. It is not a number you can quote back at a court, and a question phrased "what does the law require" is asking for sufficient distance.

8. Schrittgeschwindigkeit has no number in the law

The StVO orders walking pace in a verkehrsberuhigter Bereich, at bus stops under §20 and at some level crossings — and never says how fast that is. The courts have had to fill the gap and cluster around 4–7 km/h: the OLG Karlsruhe treats 7 km/h as the ceiling, while the OLG Naumburg has stretched to 10 — so the reported decisions do not agree with each other, and no single number is guaranteed to be accepted. 7 km/h is the figure driving schools teach and the one that sits at or below every ceiling in that line of cases.

9. Zeichen 301 lasts one junction; Zeichen 306 keeps going

Line thickness is the entire message on German priority signs — thick bar = the privileged road. What differs is the range:

10. At a roundabout, the triangle gives priority — not the roundabout sign

§8 Abs. 1a StVO is explicit: it is the give-way triangle beneath Zeichen 215 that hands priority to circulating traffic. And you must not indicate on entry — an indicator on entry tells the driver waiting at the next arm that you are about to leave, they pull out, and you drive into them. Indicate on the way out. Inside the circle there are no junctions, so rechts vor links has nothing to act on.

11. The Rettungsgasse forms at walking pace, not at the siren

§11 Abs. 2 StVO ties the duty to traffic slowing to walking pace — not to hearing anything. The reason is mechanical: once the jam is dense and stationary nobody has room to move sideways, so a lane formed late cannot be formed at all. On a two-lane carriageway the gap goes between lane 1 and lane 2; with three or more lanes, between the leftmost lane and the rest. Move while you are still rolling.

12. Inside a Tempo-30-Zone, almost every junction is rechts vor links

A zone sign (Zeichen 274.1) covers an area, and only Zeichen 274.2 ends it. Zones are deliberately built without priority signs so that drivers slow at every junction instead of being waved through. No sign means the fallback, and the fallback is §8 StVO — rechts vor links. If you are in a German residential grid and nothing is signed, assume you owe the right.

Where these came from

Every rule above was checked against the StVO and StVG text during our content build on 2026-08-03. Five of them were found stated incorrectly in otherwise careful source material — numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 — which is a fair measure of how reliably this stuff gets passed around.

Drill them until they are boring

• Right of way, animated → the junction trainer
• All 150 signs, with the confusable pairs marked → the sign catalogue
• Stopping distances you can derive, not memorise → the braking simulator
• 350 questions with the paragraph attached → practice
• Then the real format → the 30-question mock
• How the scoring works → the theory test explained

Original practice questions — not the amtlicher Fragenkatalog. Paragraph citations refer to the StVO, StVG and FeV as published on gesetze-im-internet.de and were checked on 2026-08-03. Case-law figures (Schrittgeschwindigkeit, the Verbotsirrtum ruling) are cited as decided cases, not as statute.