When driving near heavy trucks, other drivers and highway users must make allowances for:
- The increased stopping distance required by large vehicles. ✓
- The decreased stopping distance required by large vehicles.
- The decreased noise of larger vehicles.
- The increased speed of larger vehicles.
Answer: A. The increased stopping distance required by large vehicles.
When driving near heavy trucks, you must allow for the increased stopping distance that large vehicles need.
Why this is the answer
The Texas Driver Handbook's Share the Road with Trucks section explains that trucks are not built like passenger cars: they have longer stopping and accelerating distances, a wider turning radius, and more weight. That longer stopping distance is the reason you give trucks extra room rather than expecting them to stop as quickly as you can.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. The decreased stopping distance required by large vehicles. — The handbook says trucks take longer, not less, distance to stop, so expecting a shorter stopping distance from them is backwards.
- C. The decreased noise of larger vehicles. — The handbook passage on trucks says nothing about larger vehicles being quieter; it talks about stopping, accelerating, turning, and weight.
- D. The increased speed of larger vehicles. — The handbook describes trucks as having longer accelerating distances, and it says nothing about them being able to run at higher speed.
Remember it
Big and heavy means slow to stop: picture a loaded truck needing a long runway to halt, and leave that runway open.