Parking — West Virginia Permit Test
Parking on the West Virginia permit test — 15 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A vehicle must be parked facing the same direction as the traffic on that side of the street.
A car parked against the flow has to cross the road to leave, into traffic that is not expecting it.
Whenever a driver parks and leaves a vehicle, the engine must be switched off and the parking brake set.
An unattended vehicle that rolls has nobody in it to stop it, which is the whole reason for the brake.
Parking is prohibited within 15 feet of a fire hydrant.
A fire crew that has to run hose around a parked car loses the minutes the rule exists to save.
Parking is prohibited within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.
A car parked at the corner hides the person stepping off the curb until they are already in the road.
Parking is prohibited within 30 feet of a stop sign or traffic control signal.
A vehicle at the curb that hides a stop sign takes the warning away from every driver behind it.
Parking is prohibited within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing.
Trains overhang the rails, and a vehicle parked close to the crossing also hides the track from drivers.
Parking is prohibited within 20 feet of a mailbox served by a carrier who delivers from a motor vehicle.
A blocked mailbox forces the carrier to stop in the traffic lane instead of at the curb.
Parking is prohibited on a sidewalk, within an intersection, on a crosswalk, in front of a driveway, and in front of a wheelchair ramp or curb cut.
Each of these blocks somebody who then has to go around through moving traffic.
Parking is prohibited on a bridge or other elevated structure, in a highway tunnel, and on a controlled-access highway.
These are the places with no shoulder to step onto and no room for traffic to move around a stopped car.
Double parking, on the traffic side of a vehicle already stopped at the curb, is prohibited.
The blocked driver has to reverse out blind, and everybody else has to swing around into the next lane.
When parallel parking, the wheels must be within 18 inches of the curb.
A car sticking out past this leaves a lane narrower than the drivers using it expect.
When parking facing downhill, the front wheels are turned toward the curb.
If the brake slips, the curb is what the front wheel rolls into instead of the traffic lane.
When parking facing uphill where there is a curb, the front wheels are turned away from the curb so the vehicle rolls back into it.
Uphill and downhill take opposite answers, which is why this is the parking rule most often got backwards.
When parking uphill where there is no curb, the front wheels are turned to the right.
With no curb to catch the wheel, the vehicle has to be aimed off the roadway instead.
When entering an angle parking space on the right, a driver stays parallel to the curb at least five feet out from the parked vehicles.
Turning in from too close clips the vehicle already parked, which is what the gap prevents.
On the test
Which way must a parked vehicle face?
The same way as traffic on that side. A car parked against the flow has to cross the road to leave, into traffic that is not expecting 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.
All West Virginia permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against West Virginia Driver’s Licensing Handbook, published by the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-01.
- https://dmv.wv.gov/driver-services/drivers/drivers-licensing-handbooks
- https://webapps.transportation.wv.gov/TWS/DMV/Drivers_Licensing_Handbook.pdf
- https://dmv.wv.gov/graduated-drivers-licensing-gdl
- https://dmv.wv.gov/driver-services/drivers/sample-drivers-test
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-5-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-6-1/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-8-8/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-12-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-12-7/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-13-3/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-13-4/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-14-9a/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-14-15/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-46/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-49/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17B-2-3a/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-4-6/