Right-of-Way at Intersections
Who goes first when two or more vehicles arrive at the same place.
The rules
- At a four-way stop, the driver who arrives first goes first; if two arrive together, the driver on the right has priority.
- When turning left, yield to oncoming traffic going straight or turning right.
- At an uncontrolled intersection, yield to traffic already in the intersection and to the vehicle on your right.
- Always yield to pedestrians in marked or unmarked crosswalks.
- Yield to emergency vehicles using lights or sirens by pulling to the right and stopping.
Why this topic appears on the permit test
State DMVs build their permit exams around the situations that most often cause crashes for new drivers. The rules collected on this page — about right-of-way at intersections — show up because they prevent predictable, common, and high-cost mistakes. The federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) publishes annual reports on crash causes, and DMVs use those reports to weight the topics on their knowledge exams. Spend extra time on this section if you're newer to driving in the United States.
How questions are usually phrased
You'll typically see this topic in one of three formats. The first is a direct rule recall — "What is the maximum speed in a school zone when children are present?" The second is a scenario — "You are approaching a four-way stop and another car arrives at the same time on your right. What do you do?" The third is a comparison — "Which of the following actions is allowed in this situation?" In every format, the underlying skill is the same: know the rule and know why it exists.
What to remember on test day
Don't try to memorize each bullet word-for-word. Instead, picture each rule as a real driving situation. The brain remembers stories better than abstractions, and most permit-exam questions are short stories asking you to make the right call. If you can imagine yourself in the situation and visualize what the safe, legal action looks like, the right answer almost always becomes obvious.
Ready to test yourself? Take any state's practice test and watch how often this topic appears.