Keep to the right — District of Columbia Permit Test
Keep to the right on the District of Columbia permit test — 2 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
In the District you should keep to the right, except when you are about to overtake and pass another vehicle or cyclist, or to make a left turn.
Traffic coming the other way expects the left side of your lane to be clear, and drifting there invites a head-on crash.
You should keep to the right, except when your vehicle is about to overtake and pass another vehicle or cyclist, or to make a left turn.
On a two-lane or other narrow highway in the District, you must grant the approaching vehicle one-half of the paved or improved portion of the road.
On a narrow road there is no spare room, so a car that takes more than its half leaves the oncoming driver nowhere to go.
On a two-lane or other narrow highway, you must grant the approaching vehicle one-half of the paved or improved portion of the road.
On the test
When may you leave the right side of the road in the District?
To pass or to make a left turn. Traffic coming the other way expects the left side of your lane to be clear, and drifting there invites a head-on crash. DC Driver Manual, p.71: “You should keep to the right, except when your vehicle is about to overtake and pass another vehicle or cyclist, or to make a left turn.”
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)