Right of way — West Virginia Permit Test
Right of way on the West Virginia permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Right-of-way is something to be given rather than taken, and a driver yields when another driver does not.
Being right is no protection in a collision, so insisting on priority is how a rule becomes a crash.
A driver entering a public street or highway from an alley, private road or driveway must yield to traffic already on the roadway.
The traffic already on the road cannot see into a driveway, so the burden sits with the driver joining.
At an uncontrolled intersection or a four-way stop, drivers arriving at the same time yield to the driver on the right.
Without a shared tie-break, two drivers who arrive together both wait or both go.
At a yield sign a driver slows before reaching the intersection and yields to vehicles in it and approaching it.
A yield taken at speed leaves no time to stop if the gap turns out not to be there.
A driver making a left turn must yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic.
The turning driver crosses the other stream, so the judgment of the gap is theirs to get right.
The directions of a police officer overrule the message of any sign, signal or road marking.
An officer is usually there because the signals no longer match what is happening on the road.
Yielding to a funeral procession is a courtesy rather than a legal requirement, and once the lead vehicle has cleared an intersection the rest of the procession has the right-of-way.
Cutting into a procession splits it at an intersection, which is where the following drivers lose the route.
On the test
What should a driver do when another driver fails to yield?
Yield, even when entitled to go. Being right is no protection in a collision, so insisting on priority is how a rule becomes a crash.
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/