Making right turns — California Permit Test
Making right turns on the California permit test — 10 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
To make a right turn, drive close to the right edge of the road.
Leaving a gap at the curb invites a rider up your inside, exactly where you are about to go.
Drive close to the right edge of the road.
Watch for pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists between your vehicle and the curb before turning right.
That strip beside your door is where the people you cannot see from the mirror are.
Watch for pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists between your vehicle and the curb.
Start signaling about 100 feet before a right turn, then look over your right shoulder and reduce your speed.
The shoulder check is the last chance to find a rider who came up beside you while you slowed.
Start signaling about 100 feet before the turn.
A limit line is a wide white line showing drivers where to stop before an intersection or crosswalk, and you stop behind it.
It is painted where a driver can still see across the traffic they are about to join.
Stop behind the limit line. A limit line is a wide white line that shows the drivers where to stop before an intersection or crosswalk.
If there is no limit line, stop before you enter the crosswalk, and if there is no crosswalk, stop before you enter the intersection.
Each fallback puts your bumper short of the place somebody else is walking or driving through.
If there is no limit line, stop before you enter the crosswalk. If there is no crosswalk, stop before you enter the intersection.
Look both ways, left-right-left, and turn when it is safe.
The second look left catches the car that appeared while you were checking the other way.
Look both ways (left-right-left) and turn when it is safe.
Complete a right turn in the right lane, and do not turn wide into another lane.
A wide turn puts your car in a lane somebody else is already using, at the moment they least expect it.
Complete your turn in the right lane. Do not turn wide into another lane.
A dedicated right turn lane does not merge into another lane and lets you turn right without stopping, even when the signal for traffic going straight through is red.
The lane is separated from the intersection, so the signal controlling it is not about you.
A dedicated right turn lane does not merge into another lane and allows you to make a right turn without stopping.
If a traffic light or sign stands on the right curb of a dedicated right turn lane, you must obey that light or sign.
A signal placed for your lane is the one that governs you, whatever the other lights are doing.
If there is a traffic light or sign on the right curb of the right turn lane, you must obey that light or sign.
Always yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk when turning.
A turning driver is looking for a gap in traffic, which is the moment a person on foot disappears.
Always yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk when turning.
On the test
Where should your vehicle be before a right turn?
Close to the right edge of the road. Leaving a gap at the curb invites a rider up your inside, exactly where you are about to go. California Driver’s Handbook, p.18: “Drive close to the right edge of the road.”
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 California Driver’s Handbook, published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pdf (California Driver’s Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025), retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pages.txt (the pdftotext -layout fixture every citation here was cut against and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json, CA entry — the folio offset of 6 and its basis, the three non-law pages, the two sign gallery pages, and the record of why California’s exam shape is this app’s own
- docs/plans/chosen-exam-shapes.md section 5 — the decision that a state publishing neither exam figure ships 40/32 with both disclosed
- docs/plans/how-to-build-laws.md — the rule that the handbook is the syllabus and nothing enters this file without a page in it