Reduced visibility — Maryland Permit Test
Reduced visibility on the Maryland permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
You must turn on your headlights any time there is not enough light to clearly see at least 1,000 feet in front of your vehicle.
The lights are as much about being seen as about seeing.
you must turn on your headlights anytime there is not enough light to clearly see at least 1,000 feet in front of your vehicle
Maryland law requires you to turn on your headlights when you use your windshield wipers in bad weather.
If it is wet enough for wipers it is dark enough for somebody to miss you.
Maryland law requires that you turn on your headlights when using your windshield wipers in inclement weather.
You must change to low beams at least 500 feet before reaching vehicles coming toward you.
High beams fill the other driver's windshield and take their night vision away.
Change to low beams at least 500 feet before reaching vehicles coming toward you.
You must change to low beams when following a vehicle that is 300 feet or less in front of you.
High beams fill their mirror with light and blind them from behind.
Change to low beams when following a vehicle that is 300 feet or less in front of you.
Use low beams in normal driving situations, in fog, rain or snow, and when entering a tunnel or construction area. Use high beams on roads without streetlights.
In fog or rain, high beams bounce your own light back at you and you see less by using more.
Use low beams when: • Driving in normal driving situations, like driving at night on a road with streetlights. • Driving in fog, rain, snow, etc.
Yellow pavement markings should never be on your right side: yellow divides traffic going in opposite directions and marks the left edge of the road.
Yellow on your right means you are pointing the wrong way down a one-way road.
Yellow pavement markings should never be on your right side. They should always be on your left side.
On the test
At what distance of poor visibility must you turn on your headlights?
When you cannot see 1,000 feet ahead. The lights are as much about being seen as about seeing. Maryland Driver's Manual, p.27: “you must turn on your headlights anytime there is not enough light to clearly see at least 1,000 feet in front of your vehicle”
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.
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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.