Iowa DOT Permit Practice Test 39
- Questions25
- Correct to pass20
- Passing score80%
- Minimum age14 years
-
1. How do extra passengers affect a driver, especially a new one?
Show answer
Answer A: They increase the chance of distraction and of crashes
Conversation, laughter and horseplay pull a driver's attention away from the road. Crash risk for young drivers rises with each additional passenger.
-
2. A friend who has been drinking insists on driving home. What is the right thing to do?
Show answer
Answer B: Take the keys and arrange a sober ride, even if the friend objects
An impaired driver is dangerous on any street at any speed, and coffee does not lower blood alcohol. Keeping the keys and finding another way home is the only safe choice.
-
3. You are waiting to turn and the traffic ahead has stopped. Where must you not come to rest?
Show answer
Answer D: On the crosswalk, which people need in order to cross the street
Stopping on a crosswalk forces pedestrians out into the traffic lanes to get around you, so you hold back before it instead.
-
4. You are traveling at 55 mph on a rural road and come up behind a horse-drawn buggy. What is the main danger?
Show answer
Answer D: You close on it very quickly because it moves at walking pace
A buggy travels only a few miles an hour, so the gap closes far faster than drivers expect and there is very little time to brake once you see it.
-
5. May you stop briefly across the sloped ramp that joins the sidewalk to the street at a corner?
Show answer
Answer B: No, that ramp must stay clear for people using wheelchairs
A curb ramp is the only way many people can get from the sidewalk to the crosswalk, so blocking it even briefly is prohibited.
-
6. You enter a work zone at night where one lane is closed and a flagger is on duty. What is the safest approach?
Show answer
Answer A: Slow early, merge before the closure and be ready to stop
Merging early at a reduced speed keeps the queue orderly and leaves you room to stop for equipment, workers or traffic that has halted ahead.
-
7. What makes a left turn protected rather than permissive?
Show answer
Answer B: Oncoming traffic is held by a red signal while you have a green arrow
A protected turn is one where the conflicting movements are stopped by their own signal, which is what the green arrow indicates.
-
8. What is the safe way to carry a dog in a car?
Show answer
Answer C: In a secured crate, or in a harness attached to a seat belt anchor
An unrestrained animal distracts the driver and becomes a heavy projectile in a crash, so it should be crated or harnessed.
-
9. The car ahead of you slows down for no reason that you can see. Should you pull out and pass?
Show answer
Answer B: No, find out why it is slowing before you commit to the other lane
A driver usually slows for something, such as a turn, a hazard or a pedestrian, and that something is often exactly where your pass would take you.
-
10. Before making a right turn at an intersection, what should you check besides oncoming traffic?
Show answer
Answer B: Your right blind spot and the crosswalk, for cyclists and pedestrians
Right turns often catch a cyclist or a pedestrian coming up on the right, so check the blind spot and the crosswalk before you turn.
-
11. Which color scheme is standard for the drums and barricades that channel traffic through a work zone?
Show answer
Answer C: Alternating orange and white retroreflective stripes
Drums and barricades carry alternating orange and white retroreflective stripes, and the traffic cones used in the same zones are predominantly orange.
-
12. In Iowa, if you cannot safely change lanes when approaching a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights, what does the law require?
Show answer
Answer D: Reduce speed below the posted speed limit and be prepared to stop
Iowa Code section 321.323A requires drivers who cannot change lanes to reduce speed to a reasonable and proper speed that is less than the posted speed limit and to be prepared to stop.
-
13. You have just returned to your own lane after passing. Why should you not slow down straight away?
Show answer
Answer A: The vehicle you passed is close behind and needs room to stop
Returning and then braking leaves the driver you just overtook with almost no following distance, which is how a pass turns into a rear-end collision.
-
14. What happens to your field of vision as your speed increases?
Show answer
Answer C: It narrows, so you notice less at the sides of the road
The faster you travel, the more your useful field of view narrows toward the center, so a hazard coming from the side is seen late or missed altogether.
-
15. You are already inside a roundabout when an emergency vehicle approaches with lights and siren. What should you do?
Show answer
Answer B: Continue to your exit, leave the roundabout, then pull over and stop
Stopping inside a roundabout blocks the circulating roadway, so you should exit first and then pull over clear of the intersection.
-
16. You are waiting to pull out of a driveway when a bicyclist comes along the bike lane in front of you. What must you do?
Show answer
Answer D: Wait until the bicyclist has gone past
A driver leaving a driveway yields to everything already on the road, and a bike lane is part of the roadway.
-
17. A curb lane is marked BUS ONLY 7 AM TO 9 AM. What may the driver of a car do?
Show answer
Answer A: Use the lane outside those hours
A part-time bus lane is reserved only during the posted period, and outside it the lane serves general traffic like any other.
-
18. A white regulatory sign shows the silhouette of a truck inside a red circle with a diagonal slash. What does it mean?
Show answer
Answer A: Trucks are not allowed to use that road
The circle and slash over a symbol always means the movement or vehicle shown is prohibited, so trucks must keep off that roadway.
-
19. Why are sign shapes and colors standardized across the whole country?
Show answer
Answer D: So a driver knows the kind of message before reading it
Uniform shapes and colors let a driver classify a sign as regulatory, warning or guide from a distance, before the legend can be read.
-
20. Your navigation device tells you to turn where a road sign says the turn is closed. What should you do?
Show answer
Answer B: Follow the signs and what you can see
A device works from stored data that can be out of date, while signs and the road in front of you show the situation now, so the road wins every time.
-
21. When is a driver at the highest risk of falling asleep at the wheel?
Show answer
Answer B: Late at night, early morning and mid afternoon
The body clock produces its deepest dips in alertness in the small hours and again in the middle of the afternoon, and crash records follow those dips.
-
22. Reaching for a drink in the cup holder is which kind of distraction?
Show answer
Answer A: Manual and visual at the same time
Your hand leaves the wheel and your eyes flick down to find the cup, so a task that feels trivial takes away two of the three things driving needs.
-
23. You are approaching a highway-rail grade crossing marked only with a crossbuck sign. What does that sign require?
Show answer
Answer A: Yield to any approaching train and cross only when the tracks are clear
The crossbuck is a regulatory yield sign, and a train can never stop or steer around a vehicle, so the driver must always give way.
-
24. You are driving through a residential area where parked cars hide the side streets. What is the safest approach?
Show answer
Answer C: Slow down and cover the brake as you pass each opening
Where parked vehicles hide side streets and driveways, lower speed and a covered brake buy the time you lose in sight distance.
-
25. You are about to leave a roundabout when a pedestrian steps into the crosswalk on your exit. What should you do?
Show answer
Answer B: Yield to the pedestrian and wait for the crosswalk to clear
Roundabout crosswalks sit on the entries and exits, and drivers must yield to pedestrians using them.