Headlights and visibility — Virginia Permit Test
Headlights and visibility on the Virginia permit test — 8 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
You must use headlights from sunset to sunrise.
Headlights are for being seen as much as for seeing, and a car without them at dusk is invisible to the driver waiting to pull out.
Virginia law requires headlights in rain, fog, snow or sleet when visibility is reduced to 500 feet.
The rule is written in feet rather than by feel, because a driver in fog always thinks they can see further than they can.
You must use your headlights whenever you use your windshield wipers because of bad weather.
Wipers on is the simplest test a driver can apply, which is why the law uses it rather than asking anyone to judge the light.
Use low beams in cities and towns except on streets with no lighting, and switch to low beams whenever you meet oncoming traffic.
High beams reflect off the eyes of the oncoming driver, and a driver who cannot see is aiming a car at you.
When following another vehicle, use low beams whenever you are within 200 feet of it.
High beams behind fill the mirror of the driver in front, which blinds them just as effectively as meeting them would.
Use high beams on highways unless another vehicle is within 500 feet coming toward you.
High beams reach further than low beams, and on an unlit road that distance is the difference between seeing a deer and hitting it.
If an oncoming car has its high beams on, do not stare at the lights. Glance toward the side of the road and look quickly ahead until the car has passed.
Looking straight at the lights leaves you seeing nothing for several seconds after the car has gone by.
The single biggest contributor to crashes is failing to identify a risk. You must look down the road, to the sides and behind your vehicle.
Most of what a driver does depends on what they see, so a risk that was never noticed removes every choice at once.
On the test
Between what times must a driver use headlights?
From sunset until the next sunrise. Headlights are for being seen as much as for seeing, and a car without them at dusk is invisible to the driver waiting to pull out.
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Virginia Driver’s Manual, published by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-02.
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/exams/know-exam
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/forms/dmv39.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dmv39i.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/apply
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/restrictions
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-870/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-873/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-874/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-862/