Driver's License Test Prep
US Road Signs Road Markings

This pavement marking is painted across your lane at a stop-controlled intersection. Where must you bring your vehicle to a stop?

A wide solid white bar painted across the full width of a dark roadway lane.
  1. A.
    Before any part of the vehicle crosses the line. Correct
  2. B.
    With the front bumper directly over the line.
  3. C.
    At the curb of the cross street.
  4. D.
    Anywhere within one car length past the line.
The Why

The answer is "Before any part of the vehicle crosses the line."

The stop line marks the exact boundary the vehicle must remain behind at a stop sign or red signal; the entry says to bring the front of the vehicle to a complete halt before any part of it crosses the line. The tempting wrong pick is stopping with the bumper directly over the line: drivers read the bar as a target to line up with rather than a boundary they may not cross, so they pull forward until the front wheel or bumper rests on the paint.

Why the others miss

The traps in the wrong answers

B. With the front bumper directly over the line.

The whole vehicle has to remain behind the bar, not straddle it. This answer treats the painted bar as a target for the front bumper instead of a boundary the vehicle stays behind.

C. At the curb of the cross street.

When a stop line is set back from the crosswalk, the driver stops at the line, not the curb. This answer applies the rule for intersections that have no stop line at all and rolls past the painted bar to the cross-street curb.

D. Anywhere within one car length past the line.

The bar is the precise stop point; a car length past it is already past the required halt. This answer reads the marking as a rough reminder to slow down rather than the exact point a stopped vehicle may not go beyond.

The Rule

This question tests your knowledge of Road Markings on the roads of every US state . Source: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, marking 3B.16 (Stop Line)..

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