Parking prohibitions — Virginia Permit Test
Parking prohibitions on the Virginia permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
You may not park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant.
A crew needs to get a hose onto the hydrant in seconds, and a car parked over it costs them the time a fire does not give.
You may not park within 20 feet of an intersection.
A car parked at the corner hides the crossing traffic from you and hides you from it until you are already in the road.
You may not park within 50 feet of a railroad crossing.
Sight lines down the track are what let a driver see a train coming, and a parked car takes them away.
You may not park within 15 feet of the entrance to a fire, ambulance or rescue squad station.
These doors open onto vehicles that leave in a hurry, and one car across the apron holds all of them inside.
You may not park beside another parked vehicle, which is double parking, and you may not park on a crosswalk or a sidewalk.
Double parking pushes the traffic beside you into the oncoming lane to get past.
You may not park in front of a driveway, in a bicycle lane, or in a space or striped access aisle reserved for people with disabilities.
The striped aisle beside a reserved space is where a ramp comes down, so a car in it locks somebody into their own vehicle.
You may not park on the hard surface of a road where there is no curb, or in any way that blocks a traffic lane or creates a hazard.
On a road without a curb there is no line between parking and stopping in the lane, so the rule draws it for you.
On the test
How far from a fire hydrant must a driver park?
At least 15 feet away from it. A crew needs to get a hose onto the hydrant in seconds, and a car parked over it costs them the time a fire does not give.
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/