Speed limits
At night you drive out of a brightly lit parking lot onto a dark road. What does the handbook advise?
- Drive slowly until your eyes adjust to the darkness. Correct answer
- Drive at the speed limit, since your headlights make up for the change.
- Switch on your high beams, whatever traffic is around.
Why
Coming out of a brightly lit place into the dark, the handbook asks you to keep your speed down until your eyes have adjusted. Counting on the headlights to cover the difference ignores the basic night rule that you should be able to stop within the distance they light up. High beams have their place on open country roads and dark city streets, but they must be dimmed for oncoming drivers and are illegal in some areas, so turning them on regardless of traffic is wrong. At night, also remember that motorcycles, pedestrians and bicyclists are much harder to see.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is Drive slowly until your eyes adjust to the darkness.
The rule behind this one
California speed limits and the basic speed law goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
More on speed limits
- You are driving in strong, gusty winds. Which of these does the handbook recommend?
- You are driving past a school, less than 500 feet from it, and there are children outside or crossing the street. Unless a lower limit is posted, what is the speed limit?
- Unless a different limit is posted, what is the maximum speed limit on a two-lane undivided highway in California?
- An intersection has no STOP signs on any corner and your view of the cross street is blocked. What is the speed limit as you approach?