Traffic signals — Virginia Permit Test
Traffic signals on the Virginia permit test — 14 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
At a red light, stop at the stop line. Where there is no stop line, stop before entering the intersection or before reaching the crosswalk.
A car stopped past the line sits in the space people are walking through, so they have to step into traffic to get around it.
You may turn right on a red light after coming to a complete stop, looking both ways and yielding to people on foot and to other traffic.
The stop is what gives you time to check for a bike or a motorcycle, which are the road users a rolling turn hits.
You may turn left on a red light only when you are on a one-way street turning onto another one-way street, and only after a complete stop.
Both streets have to be one-way because that is the only case where the turn does not cross a lane coming at you.
A red arrow means you must stop if you intend to go the way the arrow points. Virginia law prohibits right and left turns at red arrow lights.
A red arrow is used where the traffic you would cross has its own green, so there is no safe gap to wait for.
At a flashing red light, come to a complete stop and yield to oncoming vehicles and to people on foot. Go when the way is clear.
A flashing red is used where the crossing traffic never stops, so treating it as a slow-down leaves you pulling into moving cars.
A yellow light or arrow warns that the light is about to change. If you have not entered the intersection, stop, unless stopping is unsafe.
Speeding up to beat the light puts you into the crossing at the moment the other direction is being told to go.
A flashing yellow light means slow down and go on with caution. Flashing yellow lights are placed where conditions are more hazardous than usual.
The flashing yellow is a standing warning about the place itself, not about anything happening at that moment.
At a flashing yellow arrow you may turn the way the arrow points if the way is clear. Yield to oncoming traffic and to people in the intersection.
The flashing arrow gives you permission to try the turn, not the right of way, and the oncoming driver still has a green.
At a green light you may go if the way is clear. If you are turning without a green arrow, you must yield to oncoming traffic and to people crossing.
A green light is permission to enter the intersection, not a promise that it is empty when you get there.
When traffic signals are dark because of a power failure, every driver must stop and go through as though it were an all-way stop.
Nobody has a green when the lights are out, so the only rule left is the one that makes everyone stop and take turns.
A red X over a lane means never drive in that lane. A yellow X or a yellow downward diagonal arrow means move out of the lane as soon as it is safe.
These lanes change direction during the day, so the lane that was yours this morning can be carrying traffic at you tonight.
At a pedestrian hybrid beacon, the two red lights turn solid while a walk signal shows, and drivers must stop.
These beacons sit at crossings with no other signal, so the driver arriving fast has nothing else telling them somebody is stepping out.
A left turn yield on green sign tells you that traffic turning left at a green light does not have the right of way and must yield to oncoming traffic.
A green light for you is also a green light for the driver coming the other way, and the turn takes a gap that is theirs.
It is illegal to avoid a traffic signal or sign by cutting through a parking lot or a field.
Cutting the corner puts you back on the road from a place no other driver is watching, which is where the signal was protecting you.
On the test
Where must a driver stop at a red light when there is no stop line?
Before the crosswalk or the intersection. A car stopped past the line sits in the space people are walking through, so they have to step into traffic to get around it.
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/