DMV written test
Right of way: the six situations the test keeps asking about
Right of way is never taken, only yielded. Six scenarios cover almost every question the written test will put in front of you.
Start with the sentence every handbook opens this section with, because the whole test is built on it: nobody has the right of way until someone gives it. The law says who must yield. It never says who may go.
That is not pedantry. It is why "I had the right of way" does not work at a crash scene, and why the correct option on the test is so often the one about yielding rather than the one about proceeding.
1. The four-way stop
Everyone stops. Then whoever arrived first goes first. If two vehicles arrive together, the one on the left yields to the one on the right. If you are facing each other and both going straight, you can both go. If one of you is turning left, the left-turner yields.
2. The uncontrolled intersection
No signs, no lights — common in residential grids. Same rule as the tie at a four-way: yield to the vehicle on your right. Approach slowly enough that you can stop, because the other driver may not know this rule.
3. Turning left across traffic
You yield to everything coming toward you: cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians already in or entering the crosswalk you are turning into. A green light does not change this. A green arrow does, because it means the oncoming traffic is being held.
The test likes to phrase this as a judgement call — "the oncoming car is far away" — and the correct answer is always that you wait until you can complete the turn without making anyone slow down.
4. The roundabout
Yield to traffic already circulating, then enter and keep moving. Do not stop inside it. In a multi-lane roundabout, pick your lane before you enter, because you cannot cross lanes inside the circle.
5. Emergency vehicles
Lights and siren behind you: signal, pull to the right edge of the road and stop until it has passed. Never stop in an intersection — clear it first, then pull over. And when you pass an emergency vehicle already stopped at the roadside, the "move over" law applies almost everywhere: change lanes away from it if you can, slow down if you cannot.
6. The school bus
Red flashing lights and an extended stop arm mean stop, in both directions, and stay stopped until the lights go off. The one exception in most states is a road divided by a physical median or barrier — there, traffic on the opposite side may continue. Yellow flashing lights mean the bus is about to stop: your cue to slow, not to hurry past.
Check this one in your own handbook. What counts as "divided" varies by state, and it is one of the few right-of-way rules that genuinely differs across state lines.
Pedestrians, always
Pedestrians in a crosswalk — marked or unmarked, and every intersection has one whether it is painted or not — have the right to cross, and you yield. If a vehicle ahead of you has stopped at a crosswalk, do not pass it. There is a reason it stopped and you cannot see what it is.
Practicing this section
Right-of-way questions are wordy on purpose. Read them the way you would read a diagram: identify the intersection type first, say the rule out loud, and only then look at the options. Pick the rule before you read the answers and the deliberately close wording stops working on you.