Hills, Night, Weather, Snow, Mountains, Rural Roads, Work Zones and Safe Driving Tips: Curves and Blind Crests, Headlights From Sunset to Sunrise or Under 1,000 Feet, Dimming at 500 and 200 Feet, Fog Lights, Rain, Flooding and Hydroplaning, Snowpack and Melting Ice, Tandem Plows, Threshold Braking, Chains and Four-Wheel Drive, Lower Gears and the Uphill Right-of-Way, Rural Hazards and Washboarding, Doubled Work Zone Fines and the Mobile Device Law, Scanning, Looking 10 Seconds Ahead, Mirrors Every 5 to 8 Seconds, the Three-Second Rule, the Zipper Merge, Slow Zones and Traffic Stops

Written for aiforu2 as the source for a practice-test bank and the on-device tutor for the Colorado driving knowledge test. The facts follow the official manual; the wording is ours.

Source: Colorado Driver Handbook (Colorado DMV, DR 2337, December 2024 edition), "Hills and Curves" through "Safe Driving Tips" (pages 16–20).

Hills and curves

Hills and curves hide obstructions even on familiar roads, so be ready to stop, and if you cannot see over a crest, slow until you regain sight of the road. Always slow before a curve; too fast and the tires lose grip and the car skids. Begin accelerating only after the middle of the curve.

Night driving

Dawn and dusk can be more dangerous than daylight because of limited visibility, the small area headlights light, and glare from headlights with fog lights. The law requires headlights from sunset to sunrise or whenever visibility is under 1,000 feet, and driving with low beams or daytime running lights at all times reduces risk. A vehicle parked beside the road, attended or not, must show parking lights in those same conditions, but never drive on parking lights alone. Use high beams in rural areas and on open highways away from cities; dim high beams, or low beams with fog lights, before coming within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle, and use low beams with fog lights off when following within 200 feet. Never look into oncoming headlights; drop your gaze below the glare and steer by the painted edge line until the vehicle passes. In night fog use low beams and/or fog lights, since high beams reflect back like a mirror. Increase your following distance at night and on unfamiliar roads, watch for vehicles and bicycles running without lights after sunset, slow in poorly lit areas where people and animals may be, and look for the single headlight of a bicycle or motorcycle.

Weather and hydroplaning

Whatever your drive system, in rain, fog, ice, high wind or dust the two essentials are to slow down and lengthen your following distance. Use headlights in poor visibility, never use cruise control on wet or icy roads, and never drive through standing water; find another route around a flooded road. Hydroplaning is the tires riding on the water film with total loss of traction and steering, and worn tread raises the risk. If you feel it, take your foot off the gas to slow, steer slowly in the direction you are hydroplaning until you regain control (it realigns the tires with the car), never jerk the wheel, which can flip the car by overcorrecting, and do not try to stop or turn until the tires grip again.

Snow and ice

Snow, snowpack and ice are extremely hazardous, most of all when they start to melt. Overpasses, bridges, shaded areas and snowpacked stretches can be icy when the rest of the road is not. If you lose traction, take your foot off both the brake and the accelerator and turn the front wheels in the direction you want to go. Use extra care near a snowplow or other snow equipment with flashing yellow lights; it is illegal to pass a city, county or state plow that is working with its yellow lights flashing in tandem with other plows.

Seasonal driving

Four-wheel drive adds traction but stops no sooner than a normal car. In a skid, foot off brake and accelerator. Keep good tread; in winter chains, snow tires or other traction devices are preferable and may be required, though even they slip on slick pavement. Keep brakes uniform. With ABS, if you skid, ease off the accelerator, push the brake and steer where you want to go; without ABS use threshold braking, pressure just short of lock-up (threshold braking works on an ABS car, but ABS technique does not work on a car without ABS). Keep defrosters and wipers working, scrape all ice, snow and frost even for a short trip, and clear inside fogging by opening a window. Watch for plows and sanding trucks with flashing yellow and blue lights, leave an extra-large gap and slow down, and give pedestrians and bicyclists extra room since they may have to dodge snow.

Mountain driving

Expect steep grades, changing weather, bicyclists, wildlife and rocks, and shift to lower gears to control speed on long descents. Using the oncoming lane to pass near a crest, on a curve or anywhere oncoming traffic is hidden is illegal. Expect intersections hidden by trees, brush or crops and animals near the road. If your vehicle struggles uphill, pull off at the first safe spot or stay right so others can pass, and remember vehicles going uphill have the right-of-way over those going downhill. Traction and chain laws are on the Colorado Department of Transportation's website.

Rural driving

Rural highways have the highest fatality rate per mile of any US roads. Expect sharp and blind curves, steep hills and dips, missing or hidden signs, narrow roads that make passing hard, no shoulders or guard rails, hidden driveways and T-intersections, rocks, debris, animals, farm-vehicle crossings, unmarked railroad crossings and slow or small vehicles, rough or unpaved surfaces with less traction, and washboarding on gravel that upsets steering. Potholes can jolt the car and break traction. Many bicyclist deaths happen on rural roads because of higher speeds; watch for riders on the shoulder or in the lane, and pass them slower and with more than the required three feet because of wind blast.

Work zones

Every project creates a zone with equipment, workers and sometimes daily route changes, marked ahead by signs, cones and other devices; stay alert, be ready to stop suddenly and never tailgate there. Large projects add flaggers, concrete barriers, complex signing and reduced limits, which give you time to react; watch for pedestrians and bicyclists whose routes are disrupted. Crews are exposed to straying drivers, enforcement is stepped up, and like school zones, work zones carry doubled fines. Pay attention, obey work zone speed limits and flaggers, and watch the vehicle ahead, since most work zone crashes are rear-end collisions by inattentive drivers.

Safe driving tips

Obeying every rule cuts your crash risk but does not make other drivers obey theirs, so drive calmly, ignore aggressive drivers and drive defensively. Buckle everyone up. Colorado law bars using a mobile device while driving except to contact law enforcement or the fire department, in an emergency, or with a hands-free accessory, and bars text messaging while driving except to reach law enforcement, the fire department or in an emergency. Keep both hands on the wheel at 8 and 4 or 9 and 3, steer hand-over-hand or push-pull-slide, and never turn with a palm or let the wheel slide through your fingers after a turn.

Scan ahead, to the sides and behind; look left, right and left again when turning, crossing or entering an intersection; and watch for small road users. Look at least 10 seconds ahead, about one block in the city and half a mile on the open road, to avoid last-minute braking. Look to the sides and beyond the curb for anything about to enter your path. Check the rearview mirror every 5 to 8 seconds, more in heavy traffic, and always before changing lanes, slowing, backing, leaving an intersection or descending a long hill. Following too closely blinds you and leaves no reaction time: under normal conditions use the three-second rule, counting from when the vehicle ahead passes a reference point, and add more for weather, road, traffic and time of day. Keep pace with traffic within the limit; much faster means constant passing, much slower means backups and more passing. At a zipper merge, drive in both lanes up to the closure and take turns into the open lane just before the lane ends; drivers who wait until then are doing it right. Slow zones needing extra attention include shopping centers, rush-hour traffic, schools, narrow bridges, parks and playgrounds, toll plazas, residential streets and rail crossings.

When police stop you

Officers stop drivers on reasonable suspicion of a traffic or criminal violation. Signal and pull to the right as soon as it is safe (the officer may ask you to move farther from traffic), turn off the engine and audio, stay in the car unless told to get out, turn on the interior light at night, keep your hands on the wheel or visible, and follow instructions. The officer may approach either side; lower that window, mention any weapon in the vehicle at first contact without reaching for it, and wait for instructions before reaching for documents. A non-uniformed officer should show credentials, and you may ask. The officer will explain the stop and ask for license, insurance and registration; if they are out of reach, say where they are and wait for acknowledgement. You may be asked to step out, and the officer may warn, ticket or arrest you and will usually explain; ask respectfully if not. Do not argue; contest a ticket in court. Signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt, but refusing to sign can lead to arrest. If you think the officer acted improperly, ask for a supervisor as soon as possible after the stop.

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