Front Plate Required: Yes
Area Codes: 210, 214, 254, 281, 325, 346, 361, 409, 430, 432, 469, 512, 682, 713, 737, 806, 817, 830, 832, 903, 915, 936, 940, 956, 972, 979
License Plates:
Windshield Stickers:
Road and Highway Signs:
County Roads:
Highways:
Highway Adoption:
Historical:
All vehicles registered in Texas are required to have a front plate and a blue or grey windshield sticker. Unless the city regulations override it, important signs will have large white stickers on the back and red or yellow stripes. Signposts in cities and surounding suburbs- especially near interstate highways- are usually round metal tubes arranged in either a "T" shape or a "U" shape, though neither are unique to the state.
Blue windshield sticker
Large white stickers
Red signpost stripe
"T"-shaped signpost
"U"-shaped sign post
In urban and metro suburbs, signs are posted on larger arteries before intersections with the name of the crossing road. Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston are both conglomerations of smaller towns joined by connector roads. Connector roads are generally two lane concrete or asphalt roads separated by an elevated grassy median. Lower elevations and river crossings may have a flood depth ruler, which is unique to the state.
"Next Signal" sign
Connector road with elevated grassy median
Concrete patches
Flood level ruler
Interstates in Texas are easier to identify in and around the big cities, especially the enormous interchanges in Austin, Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth. They are very wide, very tall, and often have a service road running along either side. Texas has dedicated u-turn lanes on offramps, and it uses a green circle with "HM" or "HC" for routes approved for vehicles with hazardous cargo. The entire state uses TxTag for tollroads, but Houston and Dallas both have city-specific tolls as well.
U-Turn only lane
Hazardous material/cargo sign
Dallas North Tollway
Houston purple and yellow, HCTRA
Texas is a big place If you're in a metro area or a city suburb, you can use a combination of street sign layout and hydrants to narrow down which city you are (and are not) in. In general, the greener it looks, the farther east you are, and the more palm trees you see, the farther south you are.
Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth both use numbers on the street signs and have silver hydrants. You don't have to memorize area codes, but if you're in an area that has both Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth vibes, area codes that start with odd numbers are in Austin (512 / 737). Area codes that start with an even number (or the rare nine) are all DFW (214/469/682/817/945/972). This doesn't apply to all Texas area codes, but it can help to identify either Austin or DFW from the other.
Numbers on street signs
Silver hydrants, Austin
Odd number area code, "Odd Austin"
Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin both use silver hydrants and use numbers on their street signs. DFW uses even number area codes (and the rare 9), while Austin uses odd numbers (See Austin above). An image or symbol on the left side of a street sign is common in Fort Worth, but rare in Austin. The Dallas side uses bright yellow buses, bus stops, and bus signs, all labeled "DART". The Fort Worth side uses grey buses and red/blue signs marked "Trinity Metro". Stickers with a visible black number are also on the Fort Worth side. An orange circle "T" sticker is used in Dallas for some of the tollroads.
Silver hydrants, Dallas/Fort Worth
Numbers on street signs
Numbers & image on street sign
Dallas Area Regional Transit (DART)
Trinity Metro, Fort Worth
Numbered sticker, Fort Worth
Fort Worth sticker close-up
Dallas North Tollway
El Paso doesn't come up very often, but I'm including it in this guide because it is easily mistaken for New Mexico. It sits on the border of both New Mexico and Mexico, and looks a lot like both. The region has a 915 area code, but El Paso also has unique blue and silver hydrants, usually labeled with a number.
Gravel yards
Silver/blue numbered hydrants, El Paso
915 area code
Mountain range to the NW
The best clue for Houston is their unique blue and green hydrants, usually labeled with a number.
Blue numbered hydrants, Houston
HCTRA purple and yellow
San Antonio has several different street sign layouts, but they are all blue. It has silver hydrants like Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin, if the street signs are blue, start thinking San Antonio.
Blue street sign
Blue signs with arrows
Silver hydrants
Express Tollroad signs in Texas have the same color pattern as the Minnesota state highway sign.
Texas Express Toll
Minnesota state highway
Rounded 2-prong sign posts can also be found in Utah.
Texas
New Mexico also has large white sticker behind state-owned signs.
Texas
Colorado also uses yellow signposts.
Texas
Green square county road signs can also be found in Michigan, but they are rare in both states.
Texas
Thanks to Jaydoo for answering all my Texas questions and for the list of tollroads in Texas.
The Lone Star Doc by Zem.
Texas city symbols doc by DAS.