You can help keep the driver behind you a safe distance away from your vehicle by:
- Driving 10 mph faster than the car behind you.
- Driving 10 mph slower than the car behind you.
- Maintaining a steady speed. ✓
Answer: C. Maintaining a steady speed.
You can help keep the driver behind you at a safe distance by maintaining a steady speed.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's guidance for a tailgater is to hold your course and speed, and then move right when it is safe so the other driver can get past you. Keeping a steady pace makes your car predictable, so the person behind you can judge the gap and adjust instead of closing in. The handbook also lists driving at a steady speed as a smooth-driving practice. What it never suggests is changing your speed to manage the driver behind you.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Driving 10 mph faster than the car behind you. — Nothing in the handbook tells you to speed up to gain room from a car behind you; when someone is tailgating, the advice is to keep your speed and let that driver pass.
- B. Driving 10 mph slower than the car behind you. — Slowing down below the traffic flow is not what the handbook recommends either; it says to hold your course and speed and change lanes when it is safe.
Remember it
Be predictable: hold your speed and your lane, and let a tailgater go around you when it is safe.
Official handbook: California Driver Handbook (DL 600), Section 8: Safe Driving, p. 57