Signs, signals and pavement markings
The light is green, but traffic ahead is backed up and you are not sure you can get all the way across the intersection before the light turns red. What should you do?
- Wait behind the limit line; do not enter the intersection unless you can get completely across. Correct answer
- Enter the intersection anyway; a green light gives you the right-of-way.
- Enter slowly and stop inside the intersection until traffic moves.
Why
Green means go, but only when you can actually clear the intersection. If you enter and end up stuck when the light changes, you block the cross traffic and the crosswalks, and California treats that as an offense: blocking or stopping in an intersection without room to clear it before the signal turns red is an offense. The green light also does not cancel the duty to yield to any vehicle, bicyclist, or pedestrian still in the intersection. Stopping inside it on purpose is the worst of the three choices.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is Wait behind the limit line; do not enter the intersection unless you can get completely across..