Making Synapses · Bringing Knowledge to Mankind
Automotive & MechanicsStarting smoothly and crossing the intersection
After every stop the examiner scores how you start again: the traffic check, who goes first and how smoothly you accelerate. Crossing straight through an intersection with signals or a stop sign is scored too: traffic check, speed, yielding and no unnecessary stops. It is the start and the crossing of the California DMV Class C driving test.
Free to startScenarios
- Starting from a stop sign or a red light that turns green.
- Crossing straight through an intersection with traffic signals or a stop sign.
- A car with a manual transmission: gear and clutch count.
The steps
- Before you start, check traffic ahead, to the left and to the right, with your head and eyes.
- Look toward vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians when needed, and react safely.
- Yield the right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians when safety requires it.
- Take your right-of-way when it is safe, without causing confusion or slowing traffic.
- Accelerate smoothly.
- With a manual transmission, use the proper gear and the clutch smoothly.
- Do not stall the engine in the intersection, or 3 times from poor clutch or gear use. Critical point
- Crossing through: check traffic ahead, to the right and to the left, and turn your head toward others when needed.
- Keep the right speed through the intersection.
- Yield to vehicles, bicyclists or pedestrians when safety requires it.
- Do not stop unless a vehicle, bicyclist, pedestrian, sign or signal requires it, or to avoid a collision.
- Never make an unnecessary stop at a green light. Critical point
- Never block the intersection so that it stops cross traffic. Critical point
Safety rules that stop the station
- Driving 10 mph over or under the limit through the intersection, unless the road, traffic or weather justify it, is a critical driving error.
To pass
- Each item here that you miss is marked as an error on the scoring maneuvers; you pass with no more than 15 of them.
- A step marked critical is a critical driving error: a single one fails the test.
Official source
California · DMV, DL 955
Driving Test Criteria (DL 955)
The California DMV publishes its Driving Test Criteria (DL 955) free: the pre-drive checklist, the scoring criteria and the critical driving errors.
Making Synapses is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the Georgia Department of Driver Services or any state agency. Agency names are named only to describe the content.