When entering traffic after being parked at a curb, you:
- Should drive more slowly than other traffic for 200 feet.
- Should wait for a large enough gap to get up to the speed of traffic. ✓
- Should wait for the first two vehicles to pass, then drive into the lane.
Answer: B. Should wait for a large enough gap to get up to the speed of traffic.
When you pull away from a curb, wait for a gap big enough that you can build up to the speed of the traffic you are joining.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's guidance on joining moving traffic is to blend with it rather than creep along beside it. On an expressway entrance ramp it tells you to signal, check over your shoulder, and if the lane is too short, stop and wait for a large space before entering and speeding up quickly. The same idea applies when leaving a curb: hold back until there is room to reach traffic speed, so drivers already in the lane do not have to brake or swerve around you.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Should drive more slowly than other traffic for 200 feet. — No passage sets a 200-foot slow period, and moving well below the flow of traffic after pulling out is not what the handbook describes.
- C. Should wait for the first two vehicles to pass, then drive into the lane. — Counting off the first two vehicles is not a rule in the handbook; what matters is whether the gap lets you reach traffic speed, not how many cars have gone by.
Remember it
Think of a curb like a short merge lane: you need a gap long enough to get up to speed, not just a gap that is barely empty.