Unlit signal head — Alaska Permit Test
Unlit signal head on the Alaska permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
If a signal has no working bulbs, no other signal head is working for your direction, and no one is directing traffic, the intersection is uncontrolled.
A dark light tells nobody to go. Drivers use the same rules they would at a corner with no signs or lights.
If a signal does not have any of its bulbs functioning and there is no other signal head in operation for your direction and there is no one directing traffic, the intersection is uncontrolled.
At an unlit signal you must stop and yield to traffic approaching the intersection on your right, then proceed only when it is safe.
With no light deciding, a shared rule keeps two drivers from both assuming the other will wait.
You must stop. Yield to traffic approaching the intersection on your right.
Report a signal with no working bulbs to the nearest police department as soon as possible.
The next driver may not notice the dark signal in time, and a quick report gets it fixed before someone is hurt.
Report this condition to the nearest police department as soon as possible.
On the test
If a signal is completely dark and no one is directing traffic, how is the intersection treated?
As an uncontrolled intersection. A dark light tells nobody to go. Drivers use the same rules they would at a corner with no signs or lights. Alaska Driver Manual, p.57: “If a signal does not have any of its bulbs functioning and there is no other signal head in operation for your direction and there is no one directing traffic, the intersection is uncontrolled.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Alaska Driver Manual, published by the Alaska Department of Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pdf (Alaska Driver Manual, REV.10/2025, Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14 and re-checked 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/drivermanual/ (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/instruction-permit/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/your-first-alaska-drivers-license/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://www.akleg.gov/basis/aac.asp?media=print&secStart=2.90.010&secEnd=2.90.990 (2 AAC 90, read 2026-10-04; 2 AAC 90.420(h)(2) sets the knowledge test's retest wait and no figure)