Sharing the road
A school bus with its red lights flashing is stopped on the far side of a divided highway that has two lanes in each direction. Must you stop?
- No: on a divided or multilane highway you do not have to stop for a bus on the other side. Correct answer
- Yes: flashing red lights mean you stop from either direction, with no exceptions.
- Yes, but only until the bus switches its yellow warning lights on.
Why
The flashing-red rule is strict and expensive to ignore. You stop from either direction and stay stopped while the lights flash, and failing to stop can cost up to $1,000 and a year of your driving privilege. But the handbook writes one exception into it, and this is that exception: when the bus sits across a divided highway, or across a multilane one carrying two or more lanes each way, you may keep going. The yellow answer also has the sequence backwards. Yellow flashing lights come first, as a warning that the bus is preparing to stop and that you should slow down and get ready to stop too, so they are not the signal that releases you.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is No: on a divided or multilane highway you do not have to stop for a bus on the other side.
The rule behind this one
Sharing the road in California goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
More on sharing the road
- An average passenger vehicle at 55 mph can stop within 300 feet. How much room can a large vehicle need at the same speed?
- The large truck ahead of you swings out to the left as it comes up to a corner. What is the safest reading of that move?
- When may you overtake and pass a light rail vehicle or a streetcar on its left side?
- Who is required to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle in California?