North Carolina driving lesson · Basic Driving Skills & Rules
Intersections & right of way
A 3-minute lesson from the North Carolina course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Intersections are the most dangerous places on a street or highway: more than one-third of fatal crashes happen there. Right-of-way rules tell you who goes first, but you must slow down at every intersection, even when it's your turn.
Intersection
Any place where two or more roads meet or cross. On four-lane highways split by a median of more than 30 feet, each crossing is a separate intersection.
When facing vehicles arrive together and one wants to turn left, the driver going straight has the right of way. The left-turner signals and waits until it's safe.
You and another car reach an unmarked four-way intersection at the same moment; the other car is on your right. It goes first. If it had already been in the intersection when you arrived, it would go first too.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
At an intersection with no signs or signals, which vehicle has the right of way?
The vehicle traveling fastest
The one already in it
The largest vehicle
The vehicle turning left
Answer: The one already in it
The vehicle already in the intersection has the right of way ahead of any vehicle that has not yet entered.