Right-of-Way, Intersections, and Railroad Crossings

Right-of-Way, Intersections, and Railroad Crossings

Right-of-way questions are really conflict-avoidance questions. The Tennessee manual stresses that the law tells who must yield; it never gives a driver permission to force the issue. If another road user makes a mistake, you slow down, yield, and avoid the crash anyway. On a 30-question test where 80 percent (24 correct) is required to pass, right-of-way and intersection items appear repeatedly, and the safe-choice habit reliably gets them right.

Intersection Checks

Before entering any intersection, use a left-right-left scan and look ahead for a blocked lane. Do not enter unless you can clear all the way through. Last-second lane changes, passing inside an intersection, and stopping in the middle after the light changes are both unsafe and often illegal.

Pedestrians and Emergency Vehicles

Yield to pedestrians in both marked and unmarked crosswalks. In an active school zone with warning flashers, stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk and stay stopped until that person has crossed the roadway you are on. Tennessee requires special care for blind or visually impaired pedestrians using a white cane, a white cane with a red tip, or a guide dog — stop, give them room, and avoid sounding the horn near them.

When an emergency vehicle approaches with a siren, air horn, or red or blue flashing lights, move as close as practical to the right edge or curb and stop until it passes. Never follow a fire truck closer than 500 feet. Tennessee's Move Over law also requires drivers approaching a stopped authorized vehicle showing flashing lights to move into a non-adjacent lane when it is safe, or to slow down well below the limit when moving over is not possible.

Railroad Crossings

Railroad crossings use layered warnings: round advance signs, white crossbucks, pavement markings reading RR, stop lines, gates, flashing lights, and sometimes flaggers. Slow early and never stop on the tracks. When a train is approaching or a crossing device is active, the law requires school buses, vehicles carrying passengers for hire, and vehicles hauling explosives or flammable liquids to stop within 50 feet but not less than 15 feet from the nearest rail. Expect those vehicles to slow or stop even when no train is visible.

Never drive around a lowered gate or start across until every track is clear. A train on one track can hide a second train on another track, and trains are wider than the rails and far closer than they look. A train cannot stop quickly or swerve, so the entire duty to avoid a collision falls on the driver.

School Bus Stop Rule

When a school or church bus has its red warning lights flashing and its stop arm extended, you must stop and stay stopped until the lights stop flashing, the arm is withdrawn, and the bus begins to move. On a roadway divided by a median or physical barrier, drivers on the opposite side may not be required to stop, but every driver behind the bus and on an undivided road must stop in both directions. Yellow flashing bus lights are only a warning that the bus is about to stop, so slow and prepare; the duty to stop attaches when the lights turn red.

Worked Example: Two Cars and a Walker

Consider a four-way stop where you arrive first, a car arrives on your left a moment later, and a pedestrian then steps off the curb into your crosswalk. Resolve it in order. First, the pedestrian outranks both cars, so you wait for the walker to clear even though you stopped first. Second, between the two cars, first-to-stop goes first, and that is you, so once the crosswalk is clear you proceed before the car on your left. If you and that car had stopped simultaneously, the right-hand rule would send the car on the right first.

Common Traps

• First to arrive versus first to stop. Order is set by who stops first, not by who is moving fastest toward the line.
• Forcing your right-of-way. Even with the legal right-of-way, you must avoid a crash; a defensive answer beats an assertive one.
• Passing a stopped school bus on a two-lane road. Always illegal in both directions; only a divided highway with a barrier excuses the far side.
• Entering a roundabout. You yield to traffic already circulating and enter to the right; you do not have priority just because you are approaching.