When driving on gravel or dirt roads:
- Your tires grip the road better than when you are driving on pavement.
- Your tires do not have as much traction as they do on pavement, so you must slow down. ✓
- Visibility is better than on pavement.
Answer: B. Your tires do not have as much traction as they do on pavement, so you must slow down.
On gravel or dirt roads your tires do not grip as well as they do on pavement, so you need to slow down.
Why this is the answer
The handbook explains that a skid happens when tires lose traction with the road and the vehicle starts to slip, and that you may lose control when that happens. Its advice for slippery surfaces is to drive slowly and leave space ahead, avoid fast turns and quick stops, and slow down before curves. Loose gravel and dirt are the kind of surface where grip is reduced, so the same approach applies: less traction means lower speed so you stay in control.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Your tires grip the road better than when you are driving on pavement. — This reverses the handbook's point: a skid is caused by tires losing traction, so a loose surface gives you less grip, not more.
- C. Visibility is better than on pavement. — The passages talk about traction and skids on slippery surfaces and never say that visibility improves on gravel or dirt.
Remember it
Think of a skid as traction lost. Any surface where grip drops, like loose gravel, means slower speed and more room ahead.