Before You Drive and Safe Driving Practices: Required Equipment, Tires, the Seat Belt and Child Seat Laws, Air Bags, Loads, Brakes, Mirrors, Horns and Lights, Defensive Driving, Distractions and the Hand-Held Device Law, Scanning, the 3-to-6-Second Cushion, Blind Spots, Signaling, Passing, Roundabouts, Diverging Diamonds, Parking, Backing, Freeway Driving, the Gore Area and HOV Lanes
Written for aiforu2 as the source for a practice-test bank and the on-device tutor for the Arizona driver license written test. The facts follow the official manual; the wording is ours.
Source: Arizona Driver License Manual and Customer Service Guide (ADOT MVD form 99-0117, revised March 2026), Section 1 "Before You Drive" (pages 19–22) and Section 2 "Safe Driving Practices" (pages 22–33).
Equipment and tires
Your vehicle must have working brakes, speedometer, turn signals, an intact windshield, horn, good tires, seat belts, driver and front passenger windows and emergency flashers. Before starting, adjust the seat, wheel and mirrors, and check signals and brakes before moving. Find the recommended tire pressure on the door jamb and check it with a gauge. Check tread with the penny test: with Lincoln's head in a groove, part of the head should be covered; if not, replace the tire. Arizona's summer heat, monsoon storms and high-country ice make tire care essential.
Seat belts, child seats and air bags
Each front seat occupant must wear the lap and shoulder belt (or the lap belt where only one is installed) while the vehicle moves, and the driver must make all passengers under 16 buckle up. The lap belt prevents ejection; the shoulder belt keeps the head and chest off the dashboard; with automatic shoulder belts, buckle the manual lap belt too. A child under 5 must ride in a child restraint, and children 5 through 7 stay in a restraint until they are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall; a child under 8 must be properly secured. With more than one child under 8, secure as many as the passenger area reasonably allows. Restraints must meet U.S. DOT standards and follow both manufacturers' instructions. Report an unrestrained child by calling 1.800.505.BABY. Air bags are unsafe for children under 12; children 12 and under should never ride in the front seat, and if one must, switch the passenger air bag off.
Required vehicle equipment
An emissions inspection may be required; a failing vehicle gets 30 days to be fixed and retested. Arizona law forbids driving a vehicle loaded so that any of its load can drop, sift, leak or escape (ARS 28-1098). Every vehicle needs brakes in good condition; cars and trucks need a foot brake and a parking brake, each acting on at least two wheels; a motorcycle needs one hand or foot brake; trailers of 3,000 pounds or more gross weight need brakes. Head restraints should line up with the middle of the ear. A muffler must operate constantly, and cut-outs and bypasses are illegal. Vehicles of 1967 model year and newer need an exhaust emissions system. Windshields must be uncracked with working wipers, and window tint is legal only within limits. A vehicle whose rear view is blocked needs an outside driver-side mirror showing 200 feet to the rear. The horn must be audible for 200 feet. Flashing red lights on the front are prohibited except on emergency vehicles, school buses and snow removal equipment. Turn on the hazard flashers whenever you are stopped on the roadway or shoulder.
Defensive driving
Defensive driving means constant awareness, planning ahead, anticipating danger and acting so you never contact an obstacle or another vehicle. Courtesy and consideration are the most important attitudes; driving drowsy or emotionally upset is as dangerous as driving impaired. Foresight is sizing up traffic quickly and being ready to correct. Beginners learn by instruction, observation and practice, starting in an empty lot; experienced drivers fight carelessness, overconfidence and bad habits. Avoid distractions such as reading a GPS or map, using a phone or texting, hunting for a dropped item, tending children or fastening a belt while moving; pull off the road to use a phone. Arizona law prohibits holding or supporting a wireless device while driving, reading or writing any text-based communication, and watching, recording or broadcasting video; a device may be used only hands-free or voice-to-text, or to report an emergency. Steer by looking well ahead with slight corrections; you steer toward what you look at, so in a curve look toward the outside of your lane.
Scanning and space
Watch for cars, motorcycles, bicyclists, people and animals at intersections, crosswalks, shopping centers, construction areas and playgrounds. Keep your eyes moving and look ahead about one city block; check left and right at intersections, the rearview mirror often, and before a lane change check the side mirrors and look over your shoulder. Use the 3-to-6-second rule: when the vehicle ahead passes a fixed point, count "one-thousand-one" through "one-thousand-four" (about four seconds); reaching the point before you finish means you are too close. Most rear-end crashes come from following too closely. Stay in the middle of your lane, and when sharing a lane with a bicycle leave at least 3 feet. Help the driver behind by keeping a steady speed and signaling early; if tailgated, slow gradually to add space ahead and move over when safe to let the tailgater pass. Blind spots on both sides are invisible in the mirrors; parked cars, bushes and buildings also create them, so inch forward until you can see. Never linger in another driver's blind spot, and never rely on mirrors alone. Entering from a side road or driveway, stop, wait for traffic to clear, and do not trust another vehicle's turn signal until the driver commits to the turn.
Signaling
Signal every change of direction, even with no one in sight; the vehicle you do not see is the most dangerous. Signal at least 100 feet (about 4 seconds) before turning. If you will turn beyond an intersection, do not signal until you are in it, or drivers there may pull into your path. Cancel the signal afterward. Signaling never gives you the right-of-way. Signal before changing lanes, turning at an intersection, driveway or alley, entering or leaving a freeway, pulling from or to the curb, and, with hand signals, slowing or stopping suddenly. Hand signals: arm straight out for a left turn, bent up for a right turn, bent down for slow or stop.
Passing
Pass on the left: signal, make sure you have room to get fully ahead without endangering oncoming traffic, move left and pass; when you see the whole front or both headlights of the passed vehicle in your rearview mirror, look over your shoulder, signal and return right. The same applies to slow motorcycles, bicycles and mopeds. When a vehicle behind honks or flashes, move right and let it pass; never speed up while being passed. Passing on the right is allowed only when safe and the other driver is turning left (never pass on the left of a driver signaling a left turn), on an open highway marked for two or more lanes your direction, or in a business or residential district so marked; never pass on the right by leaving the paved roadway. Do not pass across a double solid line or a solid line on your side, approaching a curve or hilltop where you cannot see, or within 100 feet of a street crossing, a railroad crossing, or a bridge, tunnel or underpass where the view is blocked.
Roundabouts and diverging diamonds
A roundabout flows one way around a central island. Yield to pedestrians and bicyclists crossing, enter to the right of the island, and yield to all vehicles already in the circle and to large vehicles entering at the same time. Slow to 15 to 20 mph, know your exit and lane from the signs, enter at a gap and do not stop inside, follow lane markings, exit at your street or go around again if you miss it, never pass a large truck inside, and for an emergency vehicle exit if you can or pull right. A diverging diamond interchange briefly moves cross-street traffic to the left side of the road at signalized crossover points so left turns onto ramps flow freely; follow signals, signs and markings.
Parking and backing
Never park where you block traffic, obstruct visibility or violate a zone. Spaces marked with the international symbol of access are only for vehicles displaying a valid placard or plate while transporting the person it was issued to; anyone else is fined. Backing is dangerous: check behind the car before getting in, turn to look through the rear window rather than relying on mirrors or cameras, and back slowly. Parallel parking: signal, stop beside the forward car with your rear bumpers aligned and about two feet between you, back slowly while turning sharply right and looking over your right shoulder, turn sharply left once your front bumper passes its rear bumper, straighten and pull forward. Hills: downhill, turn the wheels toward the curb; uphill, turn them left and let the right front tire rest against the curb; with no curb, turn right so the car rolls away from the road. Always set the parking brake. Emergency parking: pull as far from traffic as possible, set the brake and leave the car in park or in gear, turn off the engine, set out warning signals, stay with the vehicle if possible and lock it if you leave. Do not park on a sidewalk, in front of a driveway, in an intersection, on a crosswalk or within 20 feet of one at an intersection, on a freeway except in emergency, where signs prohibit it, within 15 feet of a hydrant, within 50 feet of a railroad crossing, on a bridge or in a tunnel, or where you create a hazard.
Freeways
Traffic entering a freeway yields to traffic already on it; match the right lane's speed, signal, check around you and merge without crossing a solid line or the gore area, the space between the through roadway and a ramp, which is illegal to drive over or park in. Signal before exiting, slow in the deceleration lane, keep your cushion and never cross a solid line. Get in the proper lane early; if you miss your exit, never stop or back up, take the next exit. Drive in the right half of the roadway except to pass; on a highway with three or more lanes the right lane serves entering and exiting traffic, so through drivers may avoid it at rush hour. To stop for help, pull far onto the right shoulder away from ramps, use the flashers or raise the hood, at night turn on the dome light or set flares, and do not walk along the freeway. Slow and move over for disabled vehicles. HOV lanes, marked with white diamonds, are limited at posted times Monday through Friday to vehicles with at least two people, motorcycles and buses, with substantial fines for violations; signal when crossing the solid white line into or out of one. On a freeway never cross a median, make a U-turn, change lanes without signaling, enter except at an on-ramp, park or stop except in emergency, or back up.
Practise this with Arizona Driver License questions
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The 3-foot rule and bicycle rules, motorcycle lane filtering at 45 and 15 mph, trucks that take twice as long to stop and the No-Zone, slow-moving vehicles at 25 mph, perception and reaction time, 3 and 6-second following distances, rural roads, wind, sun glare, dust storms and Pull Aside Stay Alive, rain, hydroplaning at 50 mph, flash floods and barricade liability, fog, snow and ice, headlights from sunset to sunrise and at 500 and 200 feet, highway hypnosis, wrong-way drivers, alcohol, marijuana and drugs, the open container law, zero tolerance under 21, aggressive driving penalties, emotions, medical reporting and drowsy driving.
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