Safe Driving Practices and Sharing the Road
Montana roads add distance, wildlife, and winter to the usual hazards. Questions in this domain test following distance, hazard response, and how you share the road with bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, and animals.
Space and speed
Use the three-second rule: choose a fixed object, then count the seconds between the car ahead passing it and you reaching it. Add a second for rain and another for snow or darkness, and leave more room behind motorcycles and trucks. At 60 mph you cover 88 feet per second, so a three-second gap is about 264 feet - roughly a football field minus the end zones.
Wildlife and winter
Montana has one of the highest deer–vehicle collision rates in the country. Watch at dawn and dusk and where brush meets the shoulder. If an animal is in your path, brake firmly in a straight line; swerving at highway speed causes rollovers and head-on crashes. Bridges and overpasses freeze before the road surface, and black ice appears as glossy dark patches.
Sharing the road
- Bicycles: give at least three feet when passing; they are vehicles with the same road rights.
- Motorcycles: they are entitled to a full lane - don't share it, and check mirrors twice before changing lanes.
- Large trucks: stay out of the no-zones at the sides, front, and rear; a truck turning right swings wide, so never squeeze along its right side.
- Pedestrians: yield at marked and unmarked crosswalks.
Worked example
You are behind a semi that has signaled right but is drifting left. It is setting up a wide right turn. Do not pass on the right - the trailer will sweep across that space. Hold back until the truck completes the turn.
Traps that cost marks
Using high beams in fog (they bounce back and blind you - use low beams); swerving for wildlife instead of braking; tailgating a slow driver; assuming a cyclist will move aside rather than legally taking the lane.