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Right-of-way · medium

You are driving on a street that comes to an end where it meets a wider through road, forming a T junction. There is no signal, and the cross road carries steady traffic. Who has the right of way?

  1. A You do, because you arrived at the junction first
  2. B Whoever is going faster has priority at unmarked junctions
  3. C You do, because turning traffic always yields only to oncoming vehicles on the same road
  4. D The traffic on the through road, and you must yield to vehicles travelling in both directions on it Correct

Why D is correct

When your road ends at the junction with another, the through road keeps its priority: drivers on it have no reason to expect your vehicle to enter, slow or stop. You must yield to traffic moving in both directions on that road, including cyclists and anyone crossing your path within it. This is why most T junctions are marked with yield or stop signs facing the terminating street. The geometry itself assigns the duty: the road that ends is the road that yields, whether or not a sign reinforces it.

Why the other options are wrong

A. You do, because you arrived at the junction first
Arrival order decides priority at an all-way stop, not at a junction where one road simply ends. Your street has no continuing right of way beyond the junction, so being there first earns you nothing against traffic on the through road.
B. Whoever is going faster has priority at unmarked junctions
Speed has no place in right-of-way rules. A through-road driver travelling slowly owes you nothing, and a fast driver does not gain priority by speeding; if anything, the faster the cross traffic, the larger the gap you need.
C. You do, because turning traffic always yields only to oncoming vehicles on the same road
The rule about turning traffic yielding to oncoming vehicles applies when two roads both continue through the junction. Here your road ends entirely, so you yield to everything on the through road, not merely to vehicles approaching from one direction.

On the road

Picture a side street in a foothill town that ends at a canyon highway. You want to turn toward the mountains. A pickup is coming down the grade at 50 mph, a quarter mile away and closing. Your margin must be a gap you could complete in a low-acceleration vehicle, because the truck will pass your position in under twenty seconds and the driver has no obligation to lift off the throttle for you.

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Sources

Every question on this page is written in our own words and is not copied from the handbook. Reviewed by Ethan Wen on 2026-10-18.