Right of way — Virginia Permit Test
Right of way on the Virginia permit test — 9 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
When vehicles reach an intersection from different directions at different times, the one that arrived first goes first.
Order of arrival is the only rule both drivers can see the same way, which is what stops two cars moving into the same space.
When vehicles reach an intersection with no signs or signals at the same time, the driver on the left must let the driver on the right go first.
The car on your right is the one you would hit on the driver door, which is the side of a car with the least protection.
If the traffic lights at an intersection are not working, every vehicle must stop and the driver on the left must yield to the driver on the right.
With no signal working, nobody has been given a turn, so the crossing falls back to the rule that works without any equipment.
A driver entering an interstate from an entrance ramp must yield to traffic already on the highway.
The cars on the highway are at speed with traffic behind them, and the driver on the ramp is the only one able to adjust.
When you enter a roadway from a private road or a driveway, you must stop and yield to all traffic and to everyone on foot.
Nobody on the road is expecting a car to appear from a driveway, so the whole duty to look sits with the driver coming out.
You must yield to people walking or riding bikes who are crossing a street in a marked crosswalk or at an unmarked intersection.
An unmarked crossing is still a crossing, and the person stepping into it has the same right of way as one with paint under their feet.
You must yield to a funeral procession. Do not cut through, join or interfere with one.
A procession stays together on purpose, and a car that cuts in splits it so the cars behind lose the ones in front.
You must yield to a military convoy. Never cut through or join one.
A convoy travels as a single unit at a set spacing, and a car inside it is a gap the vehicles behind cannot account for.
Yield also means stop, if you cannot merge safely into the flow of traffic.
A yield sign is not a promise there will be a gap, so a driver who will not stop for the absence of one merges into a car.
On the test
Who goes first when two cars reach an intersection at different times?
The driver who got there first. Order of arrival is the only rule both drivers can see the same way, which is what stops two cars moving into the same space.
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/