Signal light order — Louisiana Permit Test
Signal light order on the Louisiana permit test — 2 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
On a vertical traffic light, the lights are red, yellow and green from top to bottom.
If glare hides the colors, the position of the lit lamp still tells you what it means.
Traffic lights are usually at intersections and are red, yellow and green from top to bottom, when on the same signal.
On a horizontal traffic light, red is on the left, yellow is in the middle and green is on the right.
A driver who cannot tell colors apart can still read the light by which lamp is lit.
In some metropolitan areas, traffic lights are horizontal, instead of vertical, where the red light is on the left, the yellow light is in the middle and the green light is on the right.
On the test
On a vertical traffic light, which light is on top?
Red light. If glare hides the colors, the position of the lit lamp still tells you what it means. Class D & E Driver's Guide, p.33: “Traffic lights are usually at intersections and are red, yellow and green from top to bottom, when on the same signal.”
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 Class D & E Driver's Guide, published by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pdf (Class D & E Driver's Guide, DPSMV2052 (R08/25), Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA-exam.html (the OMV's Permits page, https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/permits/, archived 2026-10-04; the 40-question count)
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/resources/driver-manuals/
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/new-licenses/ (read 2026-10-04; "An 80% is the minimum passing score for the knowledge test.")