No parking distances — District of Columbia Permit Test
No parking distances on the District of Columbia permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Do not stand or park a vehicle, occupied or not, in front of or within 5 feet of a private driveway, public driveway or alley.
A car parked tight to a driveway blocks people from getting out and hides them when they do.
In front of or within 5 feet of a private driveway, public driveway or alley
Do not stand or park a vehicle, occupied or not, within 10 feet of a fire hydrant.
Firefighters need to reach the hydrant and run a hose from it at once, and a parked car can cost them minutes.
Within 10 feet of a fire hydrant
Do not stand or park within 25 feet in front of any flashing signal, stop sign, or traffic control signal located at the side of a roadway.
A parked car in front of a stop sign or signal hides it from the drivers who need to obey it.
Within 25 feet in front of any flashing signal, stop sign, or traffic control signal located at the side of a roadway
Do not stand or park within 20 feet of the entrance to any fire station driveway.
Fire trucks swing wide as they leave the station, and a car near the entrance can block them on the way to a fire.
Within 20 feet of the entrance to any fire station driveway
Except temporarily while loading or unloading merchandise or passengers, do not park within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing.
A car parked near the tracks hides an oncoming train from drivers and can be hit if it sticks out too far.
Within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing
On the test
Within how many feet of a driveway or alley must you not park?
5 feet. A car parked tight to a driveway blocks people from getting out and hides them when they do. DC Driver Manual, p.78: “In front of or within 5 feet of a private driveway, public driveway or alley”
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.
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- 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)