Headlights — New Jersey Permit Test
Headlights on the New Jersey permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Headlights must be used between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise.
The half hour either side is the part of dusk where a car turns the same color as the road.
Headlights must be used between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise.
Headlights must also be on when visibility is 500 feet or less and whenever the windshield wipers are in use.
Rain hides a car from the driver behind. Wipers on means lights on is the way to remember it.
Headlights must also be used when visibility is 500 feet or less, when using windshield wipers (during rain, snow, and ice) or when encountering fog, mist, smoke, or other factors that reduce visibility.
Parking or auxiliary lights may not be used in place of headlights when headlights are required.
Parking lights show where a still car is. They do not light the road ahead of a moving one.
Parking or auxiliary lights cannot legally be used in place of headlights when headlights are required.
High beams are for open country driving when there is no traffic in sight.
They reach further, and they blind the driver coming the other way just as far.
The bright beam is for open country driving when there is no traffic in sight.
It takes three to five seconds to recover from the glare of oncoming high beams.
At 50 mph that is the length of a football field driven by somebody who cannot see.
It can take three to five seconds for a motorist to recover from the glare of approaching high-beam headlights.
Faced with oncoming high beams a driver looks to the right of the road until the vehicle passes.
Looking away from the lamps keeps one eye working and the edge line in view.
If a vehicle is approaching with high beams, a motorist should look to the right of the road until the vehicle passes.
On the test
When must New Jersey headlights be on?
From half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. The half hour either side is the part of dusk where a car turns the same color as the road. New Jersey Driver Manual, p.83: “Headlights must be used between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise.”
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
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Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against New Jersey Driver Manual, published by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-15.