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Road-rule practice: Lanes and following space

Road rules, learner requirements and driver responsibilities. Use the separate topic sets below for licensing, phones, restraints, crashes and impairment, alongside common car skills and pictured signs. Motorcycle practice and CDL practice have their own questions and progress. Read the full handbook and application instructions too.

Road-rule practice: Lanes and following space

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Question 1 of 11
  1. 1. Your destination is a short distance the wrong way along a posted one-way street. There is no special direction from an officer. May you drive against the designated direction to reach it?
  2. 2. As you approach a rotary traffic island, may you take the left-hand way around it simply because that would make your route shorter?
  3. 3. You have activated your turn signal but have not yet established that the next lane is safe. What must you do before crossing into it?
  4. 4. A two-way road has three marked lanes. Its center lane is not officially allocated exclusively to your direction. You are neither passing nor preparing for a left turn. May you use it as your regular through lane?
  5. 5. An official sign directs traffic of your type to a particular lane. Another lane looks less congested. What should you do?
  6. 6. An official traffic-control device prohibits lane changes along the section you are entering. The next lane has a clear gap. What should you do?
  7. 7. Rain and slowing traffic have changed the conditions since you chose the gap behind the car ahead. How should you reassess that gap?
  8. 8. Several friends are driving separate cars in a caravan on a road outside a business or residential district. It is not a funeral procession. What spacing duty applies?
  9. 9. You miss an exit on a divided way. At your location there is only a separating barrier or dividing space, with no permitted opening and no public-authority permission to cross. What should you do?
  10. 10. Your private car is not in an emergency, and you are not carrying out official duties. Traffic is slow on a divided way. May you cross the unbroken boundary line and drive along the emergency breakdown lane to get ahead?
  11. 11. A physical path from a controlled-access roadway would lead to a nearby property, but it is not an entrance or exit established by public authority. May you use it to leave the roadway?
Review all 11 questions with answers

  1. Your destination is a short distance the wrong way along a posted one-way street. There is no special direction from an officer. May you drive against the designated direction to reach it?

    Correct answer: No; follow the posted direction and use another lawful route.

    On a designated, signposted one-way roadway, vehicles must travel in the designated direction. A short distance or a different vehicle orientation does not make wrong-way travel permissible.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:23, II, designated and sign-posted direction; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  2. As you approach a rotary traffic island, may you take the left-hand way around it simply because that would make your route shorter?

    Correct answer: No; vehicles must pass to the right of the rotary island.

    Section 265:23 III requires vehicles to pass to the right of a rotary traffic island. A desired exit or shorter route does not permit reversing that circulation direction.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:23, III, rotary traffic island; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  3. You have activated your turn signal but have not yet established that the next lane is safe. What must you do before crossing into it?

    Correct answer: First determine that the lane change can be completed safely.

    A driver must remain in one lane as nearly as practicable and establish that movement from the lane is safe before making it. Signaling does not replace that determination.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:24, I, single-lane travel and ascertaining safety before a lane change; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  4. A two-way road has three marked lanes. Its center lane is not officially allocated exclusively to your direction. You are neither passing nor preparing for a left turn. May you use it as your regular through lane?

    Correct answer: No; ordinary continuous through travel does not fit the listed center-lane uses.

    The center lane on such a road is limited to the specified passing, left-turn preparation or officially allocated same-direction use. Temporary emptiness does not allocate the lane to you.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:24, II, three-lane two-way roadway; passing/left-turn/exclusive-allocation exceptions; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  5. An official sign directs traffic of your type to a particular lane. Another lane looks less congested. What should you do?

    Correct answer: Follow the official lane assignment rather than choose solely by congestion.

    Official controls may assign specified traffic or travel directions to lanes, and drivers must follow those directions. A shorter queue does not cancel the assignment.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:24, III, traffic-control devices assigning specified traffic or direction to lanes; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  6. An official traffic-control device prohibits lane changes along the section you are entering. The next lane has a clear gap. What should you do?

    Correct answer: Stay in your lane through the restricted section.

    The chapter expressly authorizes lane-change restrictions and requires drivers to obey them. The normal requirement for a safe gap is not permission to disregard a specific restriction.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:24, IV, official prohibition on lane changes; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  7. Rain and slowing traffic have changed the conditions since you chose the gap behind the car ahead. How should you reassess that gap?

    Correct answer: Use a reasonable and prudent distance for the speed, traffic and road conditions now present.

    The following-distance law is conditions-based. It requires attention to speed, traffic and the way's condition rather than one universal statutory number of seconds or car lengths.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:25, I, reasonable-and-prudent gap considering speed, traffic and way conditions; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  8. Several friends are driving separate cars in a caravan on a road outside a business or residential district. It is not a funeral procession. What spacing duty applies?

    Correct answer: Leave enough space between vehicles for another vehicle to enter the gap safely.

    The caravan rule requires safe entry space between vehicles outside business or residential districts. Wanting to keep the group together does not remove that duty; funeral processions are expressly excepted.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:25, III, caravan/motorcade gaps outside business or residence districts; funeral exception; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  9. You miss an exit on a divided way. At your location there is only a separating barrier or dividing space, with no permitted opening and no public-authority permission to cross. What should you do?

    Correct answer: Continue to a lawful route instead of crossing the divider.

    The divider cannot be crossed or used for travel outside the specified openings, crossovers or permission. Missing an exit is not authorization to cut across it.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:26, I, divided-way travel and permitted crossings or public-authority exception; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  10. Your private car is not in an emergency, and you are not carrying out official duties. Traffic is slow on a divided way. May you cross the unbroken boundary line and drive along the emergency breakdown lane to get ahead?

    Correct answer: No; ordinary congestion does not qualify for the listed exceptions.

    Section 265:26 II restricts driving beyond that unbroken boundary. Its official-duty and emergency exceptions do not turn ordinary congestion into permission to use the breakdown lane.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:26, II, unbroken boundary line on divided way; official-duty and emergency exceptions; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

  11. A physical path from a controlled-access roadway would lead to a nearby property, but it is not an entrance or exit established by public authority. May you use it to leave the roadway?

    Correct answer: No; use an established entrance or exit.

    A controlled-access roadway may be entered or left only at entrances and exits established by public authority. Physical room to get through does not make a path an authorized exit.

    Source: New Hampshire RSA 265:27, Restricted Access, complete operative sentence; official consolidated Chapter 265 HTML and displayed source history read October 1, 2026. ↗

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New Hampshire / Car road-rule and winter basics

Road-rule practice: Lanes and following space

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