Railroad crossings — Maryland Permit Test
Railroad crossings on the Maryland permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Buses, school buses and trucks carrying hazardous materials must stop before every railroad crossing.
You will be the car behind one of them, and it stops whether or not a train is coming.
Buses, school buses, and trucks carrying hazardous materials must stop before every railroad crossing.
Never start across the tracks unless you can get completely over before a train comes, and make sure there is room for your vehicle on the far side.
Traffic ahead of you can stop while you are still on the rails, and the train cannot.
Make sure there is room for your vehicle on the other side of the tracks before crossing.
Look for a train at any time: trains can come from either direction, and they may be closer and traveling faster than they appear.
A train is so large that both its distance and its speed read wrong from inside a car.
Trains can come from either direction, and they may be closer and traveling faster than they appear.
If you have an emergency on or near a railroad crossing, get out of the vehicle and move away from the tracks.
Nothing in the car is worth the seconds, and a train striking it will scatter it a long way.
If you have an emergency on or near a railroad crossing, get out of the vehicle and move away from the tracks.
Report emergencies and safety problems at a railroad crossing using the information on the blue and white Emergency Notification System sign.
The sign carries the details of the people who can stop the trains, which nobody else can do.
Report emergencies and safety problems at railroad crossings using the information on the blue and white Emergency Notification System (ENS) sign.
On the test
Which vehicles must stop at every railroad crossing?
Buses and hazardous material trucks. You will be the car behind one of them, and it stops whether or not a train is coming. Maryland Driver's Manual, p.30: “Buses, school buses, and trucks carrying hazardous materials must stop before every railroad crossing.”
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Maryland Driver's Manual, published by the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-06.