Driving Behaviors: Starting, Steering, Scanning, Intersections, Work Zones and Sharing the Road: Starting With the Parking Brake On, Smooth Acceleration, Hands at 8-to-10 and 2-to-4 With Hand-Over-Hand and Push-Pull Steering, Looking 12 Seconds Ahead and a Block in the City, Looking to the Sides and Behind, Intersections and Blocking the Box, a Dead Signal as a Stop Sign, Railroad Crossings and the Hidden Second Train, Work Zones With 40,000 Injuries a Year, Fines up to $1,000 and Doubled Phone Fines, the Vulnerable User Law and Three Feet, Emergency Vehicles and the Move Over Law, Pedestrians Who Raise a Hand at the Curb, Unmarked Crosswalks, White Canes, Bicyclists' Rights and Doubled Fines, Motorcycles and 40 Percent Left-Turn Crashes, Slow Vehicles and the Four-Second Sight-Distance Rule, Ice Cream Trucks at 10 Feet and 5 mph, Horses, and Trucks With No-Zones, 65 Feet and Half a Mile to Pass

Written for aiforu2 as the source for a practice-test bank and the on-device tutor for the Connecticut Class D learner's permit knowledge test. The facts follow the official manual; the wording is ours.

Source: Connecticut Driver's Manual (DMV, March 2023), Chapter 3 "Driving Behaviors", "Good Driving Practices" through "Sharing the Road with Trucks" (pages 14–20).

Starting, accelerating and steering

Check the owner's manual for starting, with the parking brake on, a manual transmission out of gear (some require the clutch down) and an automatic in park. Accelerate gradually and smoothly, since a fast start spins the drive wheels and slides the car on slippery surfaces, and with a manual practice the clutch and accelerator so the engine neither races nor stalls between gears. Hold the wheel with hands on opposite sides, left between 8 and 10 o'clock and right between 2 and 4, a comfortable position that lets you turn at high speed without lifting a hand. Use hand-over-hand steering for sharp corners and straighten the wheel by hand afterward rather than letting it slip through your fingers. In the push-pull method your knuckles face out with both hands firm on the outer rim: push one hand up to 12 o'clock while the wheel slides through the other, bring that other hand to 1 or 11 o'clock and pull down while the first slides back, and repeat, so the hands never cross and never leave the wheel.

Scanning

Know what is happening around you by looking ahead, to the sides and behind. Looking well down the road avoids last-minute braking and turning, saves fuel, keeps traffic steady, gives you time to see around your vehicle and keeps you steering straight with less weaving; safer drivers look at least 12 seconds ahead, about one block in the city and about four blocks or a quarter mile on the highway. To measure it, pick a fixed object as far ahead as you are looking and count "one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand" until you reach it. Acting early gives drivers behind more time and keeps everyone safer. Look to the sides because vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians can cross or enter your path at any time, especially at intersections and railroad crossings and when changing lanes. Look behind more often in heavy traffic to know if someone follows too closely or approaches too fast, and always when changing lanes, slowing, backing or descending a long or steep hill.

Intersections and railroad crossings

An intersection is any place traffic merges or crosses: cross streets, side streets, driveways, and shopping center or parking lot entrances. Before entering, look left and right for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians; when stopped, look left and right again just before moving; and look across to be sure the path is clear all the way through so you will not block it if you must stop. Before turning left across traffic, wait for a safe opening, remembering oncoming traffic including bicycles always has the right-of-way, check that the street you are entering holds no vehicles, bicycles or pedestrians that would strand you in the oncoming path, and look once more toward oncoming traffic. Before turning right, check for traffic from the left and oncoming traffic turning into your path, check for pedestrians crossing where you will turn, never turn immediately after passing a bicycle, and remember you may turn right on red after stopping unless a sign prohibits it. Never trust signals or signs to keep others out of your path; look both ways even when cross traffic has a red light or stop sign, especially just after your light turns green, when cross-street drivers hurry through. State law requires treating an intersection with an inoperative signal as though it were controlled by a stop sign. If your view of a cross street is blocked, edge forward slowly so crossing drivers see your front before you see them. In heavy traffic you may not enter an intersection without room on the far side to clear it without obstructing others, known as blocking the box or gridlock. Wherever the roadside is busy, near shopping centers, parking lots, construction, crowded sidewalks, playgrounds and schoolyards, someone may enter the road, so look to the sides. At any railroad crossing slow and look both ways even if you have never seen a train there, since assuming none is coming is a leading cause of crossing deaths; make sure there is room on the far side before crossing; and at multi-track crossings wait until a passing train is well down the track, because it may hide another.

Work zones

A work zone is any roadwork that may delay traffic, often with lane closures, detours and moving equipment such as sweepers, line painters and mowers, short or long term and most common in summer; about 40,000 people a year are injured in work zone crashes. Watch for cones, barrels, signs, large vehicles and workers in bright vests; temporary signs are orange with black letters or symbols, on the right or on both sides of a divided highway, and tell you what to do and how soon; reduced limits are posted, and with no reduced-speed sign the normal limit applies. Anyone convicted of speeding, disobeying a traffic control device, using an improper lane or endangering a highway worker in a work zone faces fines up to $1,000, points on the license and possibly the driver retraining program, and distracted-driving fines are doubled for illegal hand-held phone or device use in a work zone. Slow down, obey posted limits and stay alert; follow the signs and flaggers; do not tune out signs in long-term zones; expect patterns that change daily with lane shifts or alternating closures; use extreme caution at night whether or not workers are present; watch tail and brake lights ahead; merge as soon as you notice the zone; position your lane away from workers and equipment; keep a safe distance from barriers, trucks, equipment and workers and never tailgate; observe the signs until "End Road Work", since mobile operations such as painting, patching and mowing may be out of sight; concentrate and avoid phones, radios and grooming; take alternate routes when you can; expect delays and leave early; and stay calm, because work zones improve the roads for everyone.

Sharing the road: vulnerable users, emergency vehicles and pedestrians

Sharing the road means getting along, not getting ahead. Connecticut's Vulnerable User law raises the penalties for drivers who fail to use reasonable care and seriously injure or kill a pedestrian, bicyclist, wheelchair user, someone riding or driving an animal, a highway worker, or the operators of garbage trucks, tank vehicles, mail carriers and express delivery vehicles; drivers must allow three feet when passing them. You must yield to police, fire, ambulance and other emergency vehicles using sirens, air horns or red or blue flashing lights, pulling to the right edge or as near as possible and stopping until they pass unless a police officer or firefighter directs otherwise. Under the Move Over law, when any vehicle is pulled over on any part of a highway or road, slow below the posted limit and move over one lane whenever safe. Children, the elderly and disabled pedestrians are the most frequent victims, and older or disabled walkers may see and hear poorly and move slowly. Pedestrians generally have the right-of-way in crosswalks, and there is a crosswalk at every intersection even without paint, imagined by extending the sidewalk or shoulder across the road. You must slow or stop and grant the right-of-way to a pedestrian anywhere in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, including one who steps to the curb at its entrance and raises a hand and arm toward oncoming traffic, or who moves any body part or extension, a wheelchair, cane, walking stick, crutch, bicycle, electric bicycle, stroller, carriage, cart or leashed dog, into the crosswalk entrance. Do not open a door into a pedestrian, bicyclist or moving traffic. Children are the least predictable and hardest to see, so take extra care near schools, bus stops, playgrounds, parks and ice cream trucks, when backing in or out of a driveway, and at all times in school zones, where you obey the signs, flashing lights and reduced limit whether or not school is in session, and stop and yield to crossing students or a crossing guard's signal. A blind or partially blind pedestrian with a white cane, tipped in color or not, or a guide dog always has the right-of-way: stop and stay stopped while the person is about to cross or crossing, and at regulated intersections stay stopped until the person is out of the road even on a green light.

Bicyclists, motorcycles, slow vehicles, ice cream trucks and horses

Bicycles are vehicles with the same rights, privileges and responsibilities, so expect them riding with traffic, using the left lane to turn, and "taking the lane" near its center when it is too narrow to share side by side. Skilled riders hold a steady line while unskilled ones swerve, ignore signals and ride unlit, so be ready for sudden moves. A rider must follow the rules of the road, ride on the right as far right as they judge safe (or in the left edge of a right-turn lane when going straight), obey signs and signals, use hand signals, yield to pedestrians, wear a helmet under 16, and should wear bright clothing and use required lights and reflectors. As a driver, yield to bicyclists at intersections as to pedestrians and vehicles, yield where a bike path or lane crosses a road, and yield to riders in a bike lane or on a sidewalk before turning across it, knowing fines are doubled for failing to yield to a bicyclist; pass only when you can leave at least three feet, counting your vehicle's width and any load or trailer; do not slow, stop or turn right immediately after passing, since your brakes far outmatch a bicycle's; do not sound the horn near riders without good cause, since it can startle them into your path, and they may be in the travel lane for hazards you cannot see; watch for riders entering your lane when turning, especially children on sidewalks; never turn sharply in front of a rider or force one off the road; look for riders anywhere on the road; take extra care when the road is wet, sandy or graveled, when riders may use the full lane; you may pass slow vehicles including bicycles in a no-passing zone if the maneuver is safe; cooperate with riders' hand signals for turns and stops while watching for a turned head when both hands must stay on the bars; consider a rider's speed when passing and never pass one immediately before a right turn, letting the rider clear the intersection first; do not stop, park or drive in a bike path or lane except to enter or leave an alley or driveway, on official duty, under police direction or in an emergency, and yield to bicycles in the lane, which you may turn across but not drive in before a turn; check for riders before opening a door when parked on the street; and check for riders before backing, especially near schools and homes. Motorcyclists have the same rights and are harder to see and predict: a rider may use a full lane and two motorcycles may share one, but never pass a motorcycle in its lane; motorcycles duck easily into blind spots, so check mirrors and turn your head before entering or leaving a lane and at intersections; about half of motorcycle crashes involve another vehicle and nearly 40 percent are caused by the other vehicle turning left in front of the rider, whose small profile makes speed and distance hard to judge, so look carefully before turning left; a flashing motorcycle signal may not self-cancel, so do not pull out until the rider actually turns, and some motorcycles have no signals at all; signal before lane changes and merges so riders can plan; expect sudden changes of lane or speed for potholes, gravel, slick surfaces, seams, crossings and grooved pavement; follow 3 to 4 seconds back, more when wet, since motorcycles stop quickly; always dim your headlights for a motorcycle, whose rider is far more vulnerable to glare; and when a motorcycle passes you, hold your lane and speed and let the rider finish. Spot slow vehicles early so you can change lanes or slow gently: trucks and underpowered cars lose speed on grades and take longer to reach speed when entering traffic; you must yield to a bus in your direction that signals properly to pull out; farm tractors, animal-drawn vehicles and maintenance vehicles usually travel 25 mph or less and show an orange slow-moving triangle; state law lets you pass slow traffic, pedestrians, parked or standing vehicles, animals, bicycles, mopeds and scooters in a no-passing zone, crossing the double yellow line, only when you can see far enough ahead to pass safely. Drive at a speed that always lets you stop, using the four-second sight-distance rule: pick a fixed object as far ahead as you can clearly see, count four seconds, and if you reach it before finishing you are going too fast for your sight distance. An ice cream truck showing flashing lights with its stop arm and crossing arm extended requires stopping at least 10 feet from its front or back, then passing at no more than 5 mph while yielding to any pedestrian crossing to or from the truck, unless the truck is in another lane separated by a safety island or barrier. Horseback riders are subject to and protected by the rules of the road and ride single file near the right edge or on a usable right shoulder, lane or path; slow or stop to avoid striking, endangering or frightening a horse, keep a reasonable speed and distance, and never sound the horn or make loud noises near one.

Sharing the road with trucks

Trucks bring everything we eat, wear and use, so sharing the road with them is essential. Trucks, tractor-trailers, buses and RVs are longer, higher and wider, accelerate slowly and need more distance to stop and turn, and the danger areas around them where crashes are likeliest are the No-Zones, which include blind spots where your car vanishes from the driver's view. Side No-Zones are large on both sides, dangerous because of wide turns, and if you cannot see the driver's face in the side mirror the driver cannot see you; the rear No-Zone is huge, hiding your car and hiding traffic ahead from you, so a sudden stop leaves you nowhere to go; the front No-Zone means you can be rear-ended by cutting in too soon after passing, since these vehicles need nearly twice the time and room to stop, a truck with its tow vehicle can be 65 feet long and passing may take more than half a mile of clear road, so wait until the whole front of the truck shows in your mirror before pulling in and then keep your speed; and for wide turns trucks swing left or right and cannot see cars beside or behind them, with blind spots up to 20 feet in front of the cab and about 200 feet behind, so squeezing between a truck and the curb or another vehicle invites disaster. Truck drivers want to avoid crashes as much as you, but an evasive move in a truck can crash the truck even if you escape: trucks accelerate slowly, need more room, need more stopping distance in a panic stop, are higher than wide and hard to swerve, so stay out of their blind spots. Pass only with room to finish without excessive speed, checking front and rear, signaling and changing lanes legally, never where the pass would end in a no-passing zone; complete it promptly, since lingering beside the cab puts you where the driver cannot see you; signal and return when the front of the truck shows in your inside mirror and keep your speed up; avoid pulling in front of a truck when traffic may slow, which steals the driver's margin; if a truck passes you, slow slightly to shorten the pass and never speed up, which is dangerous and illegal; and when meeting a truck, keep as far right as you safely can for margin and less wind turbulence. Following a truck closely means driving blind, unable to see around it and unseen in its mirrors; never follow closer than three seconds, counted from a roadside landmark as the truck's rear passes it; edging left to check for room to pass can put you face to face with an oncoming vehicle; you may hit a pothole or debris the truck cleared; with more brakes and tires on the road a truck can sometimes stop faster than a car; never use high beams behind a truck at night, since glare in its big mirrors blinds the driver; and do not stop too close behind a truck on an upgrade, where it may roll back, but a little to one side so the driver sees you. Rear wheels follow a shorter path than front wheels, more so on longer vehicles (off-track), so a truck turning right may first swing left to keep its rear wheels off the curb; resist passing on the right of a truck approaching an intersection or you may be caught between it and the curb. Trucks often must back from the street into loading areas, so stop and let them, and never drive around a backing truck, which puts you outside the driver's view. If a truck driver slows, stops, signals or changes lanes there is a good reason, so slow and hold your position; let entering traffic merge at highway ramps and never cut across several lanes from an on-ramp; some trucks must stop at railroad crossings, so let them stop and resume; and on a road with two or more lanes your way stay in the right lane except to pass, using the center lane on a road of three or more lanes where much traffic enters and exits, and never drive on the shoulder unless officials direct you.

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