Right-of-way and intersections
The car in the lane beside you has stopped at a crosswalk. Your light is green and your own lane looks clear. What should you do?
- Do not pass it: a pedestrian you cannot see may be crossing. Correct answer
- Pass it, but at no more than 10 mph.
- Pass it at normal speed, because the green light gives you the right-of-way.
Why
A stopped vehicle at a crosswalk is a screen, and the handbook gives that as the reason not to pass it: you may not be able to see the pedestrian who made it stop. The green light does not settle the question either, because a green light still requires you to stop for any pedestrian in the intersection, and pedestrians have the right-of-way in marked and unmarked crosswalks alike. The 10 mph answer is a real limit from a neighboring rule, the one that lets you pass a bus, streetcar or trolley stopped at a safety zone or a traffic light at no more than 10 mph. Here the correct response is not a slower speed at all; it is waiting until you can see what the other driver can.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is Do not pass it: a pedestrian you cannot see may be crossing..
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Right-of-Way Rules: Who Goes First? › Pedestrians , page 41
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Right-of-Way Rules: Who Goes First? › Crosswalks , page 41
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Traffic Control › Traffic Signals › Solid Green Light , page 34
- Section 7. Laws and Rules of the Road › Sharing the Road › Buses, Streetcars, Trolleys , page 43