Pavement markings — Virginia Permit Test
Pavement markings on the Virginia permit test — 14 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Yellow center lines mean traffic flows in two directions, in opposite ways.
The color tells you at a glance whether anything is coming the other way.
Yellow center lines mean two-way traffic, flowing in opposite directions.
A broken yellow center line means passing on the left is allowed from either direction when the road ahead is clear.
A broken line is a gap you may cross; a solid one is not.
Broken yellow center lines mean that passing on the left is allowed in either direction when the way ahead is clear.
Where a broken yellow line runs alongside a solid one, passing is allowed from the broken side but not from the solid side.
Your own side of the line is the one that decides, and the solid side is the one that cannot see far enough.
A broken yellow line alongside a solid yellow line means that passing is allowed from the side of the broken line, but not from the side of the solid line.
Double solid yellow lines mark the center of the road and passing is not allowed either way, though you may cross to turn left or to pass a person walking or cycling when the far lane is clear.
The lines mark road where nobody can see far enough ahead to pass a car safely.
You may not cross the lines unless you are making a left turn or passing pedestrians, bicyclists, and riders of scooters or skateboards, when the opposite lane is clear and you can pass safely.
Broken white lines separate lanes going the same way, and you may change lanes across them with care.
White means everyone beside you is going your way, so a lane change costs you nothing head-on.
Broken white lines separate lanes of traffic going in the same direction. You may change lanes with caution.
Solid white lines mark turn lanes and the right edge of the road, and discourage lane changes near intersections and ramps.
They go where a lane change is most likely to surprise somebody, such as an on-ramp.
Solid white lines show turn lanes and discourage lane changes near intersections,
Double solid white lines separate lanes going the same way that you may not cross, such as a carpool lane beside an expressway.
The lane beyond runs to its own rules, and you may join it only where it is meant to be joined.
Double solid white lines separate lanes of traffic going in the same direction. Most often they are used to designate special use lane from conventional lanes, as when used to separate a High Occupancy Vehicle lanes from the other lanes of an expressway. You may not cross these lines.
A lane marked with a curved arrow, or a curved arrow and the word ONLY, must be used to turn the way the arrow points.
The lane feeds into the turn, so going straight from it crosses in front of everyone who obeyed it.
If you are in a lane marked with a curved arrow or a curved arrow and the word ONLY, you must turn in the direction of the arrow.
A center lane bounded by a solid yellow line and a broken yellow line on both sides may be used by either direction to turn left, and you may not travel more than 150 feet in it.
It is a lane for waiting to turn, not a lane for driving, and drivers coming the other way are using it too.
However, they may not travel further than 150 feet in this lane.
A yield line is a row of triangles across the road showing where you must yield or stop, and it often marks the entry to a roundabout.
It puts the give-way point on the road itself, where you are already looking.
Yield line is a line of triangles extending across the roadway that may be used with a yield sign to show the point at which you must yield or stop
A sharrow is a bicycle symbol with a double arrow above it, marking a lane too narrow for a car and a bicycle to sit side by side.
It marks a lane where a cyclist has to take the middle, so a squeeze past has nowhere to go.
A shared lane marking, or sharrow, consists of a bicycle symbol with a double chevron arrow above it and is used on travel lanes too narrow for motor vehicles and bicycles to share side-byside.
A bicycle lane is for cyclists, and drivers should not drive in it except when they need to turn.
A cyclist has no way around a car parked in the one lane built for them.
A bicycle lane is for the preferential use of bicyclists. Drivers should not drive in the bicycle lane except when necessary to turn left or right.
At an intersection with a bicycle box, drivers must stop for a stop signal behind the box rather than inside it, and turns on the stop signal are not allowed there.
The box is the space a cyclist moves into so the driver behind can see them.
Drivers must stop for a red traffic signal behind all bicycle boxes, not inside the box.
On an unmarked two-lane road you may pass a slow vehicle on the left when no sign forbids it and the way is clear.
No line does not mean no rule; the road still has to be clear far enough ahead.
On an unmarked two-lane road, you may pass a slow moving vehicle on the left side if there are no signs prohibiting passing.
On the test
What do yellow center lines tell you about the road?
Traffic flows in two opposite directions. The color tells you at a glance whether anything is coming the other way. Virginia Driver's Manual, p.11: “Yellow center lines mean two-way traffic, flowing in opposite directions.”
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 Virginia Driver's Manual, published by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-06.