Parking on a hill — District of Columbia Permit Test
Parking on a hill on the District of Columbia permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
When parking downhill with a curb, turn your front wheels toward the curb.
If the brake fails, the front tire rolls into the curb and stops the car instead of letting it run into traffic.
Toward the curb when parking downhill
When parking uphill with a curb, turn your front wheels away from the curb.
If the car rolls back, the rear of the front tire catches the curb and holds it there.
Away from the curb when parking uphill
When parking on an uphill or downhill grade with no curb, you must turn your front wheels toward the edge of the road.
With no curb to catch it, a rolling car should head off the road rather than into the traffic lane.
When parking your vehicle on an uphill or downhill grade with no curb, you must turn your front wheels toward the edge of the road (where the curb would be).
When parking on a hill with a manual transmission, leave the vehicle in gear and engage the parking brake.
Neutral lets a parked car roll freely, while a gear holds it if the brake slips.
If you have a manual transmission, leave the vehicle in gear and engage the parking brake.
On the test
Which way should you turn your front wheels when parking downhill next to a curb?
Toward the curb. If the brake fails, the front tire rolls into the curb and stops the car instead of letting it run into traffic. DC Driver Manual, p.76: “Toward the curb when parking downhill”
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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- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
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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)