When parking your vehicle on any hill:
- One of your rear wheels should touch the curb.
- Use your parking brake and leave the vehicle in "park." ✓
- Your front wheels should be parallel to the road, if there is no curb.
Answer: B. Use your parking brake and leave the vehicle in "park."
When you park on any hill, set your parking brake and leave the vehicle in park.
Why this is the answer
The handbook warns that a vehicle parked on a hill could roll because of equipment failure. It says to set the parking brake and leave the vehicle in park, or in gear if it has a manual transmission. That step applies on any hill. The handbook also gives wheel-direction rules that differ for downhill, uphill, curb, and no-curb situations, but the parking brake and park setting are the general rule for all hill parking.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. One of your rear wheels should touch the curb. — The handbook describes turning the front wheels toward or away from the curb; the gentle curb touch mentioned for uphill parking is not a rule that a rear wheel should touch the curb on any hill.
- C. Your front wheels should be parallel to the road, if there is no curb. — When there is no curb, the handbook says to turn the wheels to the right so the vehicle rolls away from the center of the road if the brakes fail, not to leave them parallel to the road.
Remember it
Set the brake and put it in park first, then aim the front wheels based on the slope and whether there is a curb.
Official handbook: California Driver Handbook (DL 600), Section 6: Navigating the Roads, p. 27