General traffic laws — District of Columbia Permit Test
General traffic laws on the District of Columbia permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
You must obey a police officer's instructions even when they are contrary to laws, signs, signals and markings.
When a signal breaks or a crash blocks a road, the officer can see what the light cannot, and the instructions keep traffic moving safely.
You must obey the instructions of a police officer even though they may be contrary to laws, signs, signals, and markings.
You must not try to evade a traffic signal or road sign by leaving the road and traveling across private property.
Cutting through a gas station or parking lot to skip a light surprises people walking and parking there.
You must not try to evade a traffic signal or road sign by leaving the road and traveling across private property
You commit a misdemeanor or felony when you disregard any traffic law or fail to do something the law requires.
Traffic rules are real laws, not suggestions, and breaking them can bring a criminal charge.
You commit a misdemeanor or felony when you disregard any traffic law or fail to do something required by the law
On the test
A police officer waves you through a red light. What should you do?
Follow the officer. When a signal breaks or a crash blocks a road, the officer can see what the light cannot, and the instructions keep traffic moving safely. DC Driver Manual, p.29: “You must obey the instructions of a police officer even though they may be contrary to laws, signs, signals, and markings.”
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.
All District of Columbia permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against DC Driver Manual, published by the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-05.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DC.pdf (DC Driver Manual (English), Rev. 7/29/2021, District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles, fetched 2026-10-05 from the Wayback Machine's original-bytes capture of dmv.dc.gov; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DC.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- https://dmv.dc.gov/publication/dc-dmv-automobile-driver-manual (read 2026-10-05; links only the 2023 Issuu flipbooks)
- https://issuu.com/dcdmv/docs/dc_dmv_driver_manual_english_revised_final (the current 2023 edition, read 2026-10-05 from its public page images to diff against the pinned edition; not pinnable)
- https://dmv.dc.gov/service/knowledge-tests (read 2026-10-05; states no count or mark for the knowledge test)
- https://dcregs.dc.gov/Common/DCMR/RuleList.aspx?ChapterNum=18-1 (18 DCMR chapter 1, sections 100-114, read 2026-10-05; section 104 sets what the examination covers and states no figure)
- https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-1401.01 (D.C. Code 50-1401.01, read 2026-10-05; requires a knowledge examination and states no figure)