When the driver behind you wants to pass, you should:
- Speed up.
- Go the same speed.
- Slow down to allow room in front of your vehicle for the other driver to complete the pass easily. ✓
- Change lanes.
Answer: C. Slow down to allow room in front of your vehicle for the other driver to complete the pass easily.
Slow down to give the driver behind you room in front of your vehicle so they can finish the pass easily.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's guidance for being overtaken is to make the pass easier for the other driver, not harder. It says to keep to the far side of your lane and to slightly reduce your speed, and it warns plainly not to speed up while another vehicle is passing you. Easing off creates the gap ahead that the passing driver needs to pull back in safely. Speeding up or holding your speed closes that space and stretches the pass out longer than it needs to be.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Speed up. — The handbook specifically says not to speed up while another vehicle is passing you, since that fights the pass instead of helping it.
- B. Go the same speed. — Holding the same speed leaves no extra room ahead of you, while the handbook's guidance is to slightly reduce your speed for the passing driver.
- D. Change lanes. — Changing lanes is not what the handbook tells you to do when a driver behind wants to pass; the instruction given is to keep to the far side of your lane and ease off the speed.
Remember it
When someone is coming around you, be a helper: drift to the far side of the lane and lift off the gas a little.