What speed should you be driving when entering onto a highway?
- At or near the speed of traffic. ✓
- Faster than the speed of traffic.
- Slower than the speed of traffic.
Answer: A. At or near the speed of traffic.
When you enter a highway, you should be driving at or near the speed of traffic.
Why this is the answer
The handbook lists the steps for entering a highway, and matching the pace of the traffic already there is one of them. You get into the proper lane on the on-ramp, build your speed to roughly what the other vehicles are doing, then merge when it is safe. The same passage says not to stop unless it is absolutely necessary and to pick a gap big enough for your vehicle. Driving at the flow of traffic lets you slide into that gap instead of making everyone else adjust to you.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Faster than the speed of traffic. — Going faster than the traffic around you means you close the gap you are trying to merge into, so the handbook's advice to merge only when it is safe becomes much harder to follow.
- C. Slower than the speed of traffic. — Creeping onto the highway below the pace of traffic puts you in the way of vehicles already moving and can force them to brake or swerve, which is the opposite of the smooth, safe merge the handbook describes.
Remember it
Think of joining a moving line of cars the way you would join a moving line of people: step in at their pace, not faster or slower.
Official handbook: California Driver Handbook (DL 600), Section 6: Navigating the Roads, p. 23