Highway & Freeway Driving — South Dakota

You should make the necessary traffic checks first, then signal and change lanes smoothly when it is safe. The handbook's lane change section says that during the multiple lane portions of the skills test you will be asked to move left and then back right. For each of those changes, you first make the necessary traffic checks, then use proper signals, then move over smoothly when it is safe. So checking traffic comes before anything else, and the examiner is watching to see that order. The pass is not about obeying the instruction instantly; it is about doing the checks and signaling before you move.

When you plan to change lanes, check your mirrors more often than usual. The handbook treats lane changes as a special situation, and it says special situations call for more than your regular mirror checks. Before a lane change, you check to see whether someone is beside you or coming up to pass. After signaling, you check again for someone who may have slipped into your blind spot. You check right after starting the move and again after finishing it. That pattern of repeated looks is why the mirrors should get extra attention, not the same routine check.