When rain first falls, it lifts oil and grease from the pavement and forms a slick film until enough rain washes it away, which usually takes 10 to 15 minutes. Slow down as soon as the first drops hit your windshield.
Blowing dust can cut visibility to almost nothing within seconds. Driving slower gives you more time to react, and headlights help other drivers see you; parking lights alone are not meant for driving.
At lower speeds your tires have more time to channel water away and keep their grip on the pavement. Speeding up or plowing through standing water makes hydroplaning more likely.
The car with wavy skid marks warns that the road can become slick when wet. Reduce speed, leave extra following distance and avoid hard braking or sharp steering.
On slick pavement your tires lose grip easily, so slowing down or stopping takes more time and distance than usual. Extra room behind the vehicle ahead gives you that safety margin, and cruise control should not be used on slippery roads.
Glancing toward the right side of the road keeps the glare of oncoming lights out of your eyes while you can still see the edge of your lane. Staring into bright headlights can leave you briefly unable to see.
Fog scatters strong light, so high beams bounce back toward you as glare and make the road harder to see. Low beams are aimed lower and light the pavement with far less reflection, which makes them the right choice in fog.
Headlights light up only a limited stretch of road, so at night your speed should let you stop inside that lit area. If you go faster, an object in the road may show up in your beams too late to avoid, which is called overdriving your headlights.
On wet pavement, the faster you drive, the more water builds up between the tires and the road, so the tires grip less and can start to hydroplane. Even tires in good condition lose traction on water, which is why you should slow down when it rains.
Fresh rain mixes with oil on the pavement and makes the surface very slick, so do everything gently: brake early, steer smoothly and avoid sudden turns or stops. Leave cruise control off and look farther ahead, not closer, so you have time to react.
Flashing your high beams briefly tells the other driver to dim theirs. If they remain bright, look toward the right-hand edge of the roadway so the glare cannot blind you, and never answer by keeping your own high beams on.
Cold air flows above and below a bridge or overpass, so its surface loses heat faster than pavement sitting on solid ground. Ice can form there first, even while the rest of the road is merely wet.
After dark, vehicles show headlights and signs reflect light back, but pedestrians usually have neither, so they are the hardest to pick out. Scan carefully, especially near crosswalks and in poorly lit areas.
High beams can glare off the mirrors of a car ahead and dazzle its driver, just as they blind oncoming drivers, so switch to low beams once you are within the distance your state sets (usually 200 to 300 feet) of the vehicle you are following.
When you drive too fast on a wet road, your tires cannot push the water aside quickly enough and begin to ride on top of it, losing their grip. Slowing down in the rain is the best way to prevent this.
After dark your headlights reveal only a short stretch of road, so obstacles show up late and leave you little time to respond. Keep your speed low enough that you could stop inside the area they light.
Wet pavement reduces traction, so your car needs more distance to stop and is more likely to skid. Leaving 5 or 6 seconds of space behind the vehicle ahead gives you extra time to react and brake gently.
Every question in this set has its own page with the correct answer and an explanation.
