Everything a Louisiana parent needs in one place — required practice hours, night-driving rules, permit age, and what the written test looks like — plus a free log that keeps the hours straight.
Requirements summarized from the official Louisiana driver handbook.
Restrictions: Drive with licensed driver age 21+ (or 18+ sibling/parent); no driving 9pm-5am
Restrictions: No driving 11pm-5am unless accompanied by licensed driver 21+; no more than one passenger under 21 after 6pm
Restrictions: None
Everyone in the vehicle needs to be secured. Louisiana law requires children to use an age- or size-appropriate passenger restraint system, and a child 6 years or younger or under 60 lbs. may not ride in the front seat with an active airbag.
Louisiana’s maximum speed for any vehicle is 70 mph, unless a lower limit is posted; the limit is 45 mph when pulling or towing another motor vehicle and 35 mph for school buses frequently stopping to load or unload children. Reduce speed when weather, visibility, road, or traffic conditions make the posted speed unsafe.
Driving under the influence is a crime, and vehicle negligent injury laws apply when a driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs and/or has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or more. Louisiana prohibits anyone 17 years of age and under from using any type of wireless communication device while driving and prohibits texting while driving at any age.
Stop at least thirty feet from a school bus loading or unloading children, whether meeting it or traveling behind it, and never pass while its red lights are flashing. You must yield to pedestrians at all times, including those outside a crosswalk.
For an authorized emergency vehicle using audible or visual signals, yield immediately, pull parallel to the right-hand edge or curb, and remain stopped until it passes. When approaching a parked vehicle on a highway with two or more lanes traveling in the same direction, move to a nonadjacent lane if safely possible; otherwise slow to a reasonably safe speed.
Louisiana law tells drivers who must yield but does not give anyone an absolute right-of-way, so never insist on taking it. Yield when turning left to oncoming traffic, including bicyclists, and yield to pedestrians, qualifying emergency vehicles, vehicles already in uncontrolled intersections, and traffic on the through road at “T” intersections.
What happens to traffic fines in Louisiana construction zones?
Louisiana doubles traffic fines for violations committed in construction zones.
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