Reaction and braking distance — Alaska Permit Test
Reaction and braking distance on the Alaska permit test — 2 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
It takes about three-quarters of a second to react and step on the brake; at 50 mph your vehicle goes another 55 feet in that time.
You are moving before your foot even reaches the pedal, so the gap ahead must cover that distance too.
At 50 mph, your vehicle will go another 55 feet in the three- quarters of a second it takes to react.
Once you hit the brakes at 50 mph, you may travel another 160 feet or more before you stop.
Braking does not stop a car at once, so trouble spotted late is trouble you will reach.
Once you hit the brakes, you may go another 160 feet or more before you stop.
On the test
At 50 mph, how far does your vehicle travel in the time it takes you to react and hit the brake?
55 feet. You are moving before your foot even reaches the pedal, so the gap ahead must cover that distance too. Alaska Driver Manual, p.86: “At 50 mph, your vehicle will go another 55 feet in the three- quarters of a second it takes to react.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
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- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Alaska Driver Manual, published by the Alaska Department of Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pdf (Alaska Driver Manual, REV.10/2025, Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14 and re-checked 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AK.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/drivermanual/ (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/instruction-permit/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://dmv.alaska.gov/credential-services/your-first-alaska-drivers-license/ (read 2026-10-04; states no count or mark)
- https://www.akleg.gov/basis/aac.asp?media=print&secStart=2.90.010&secEnd=2.90.990 (2 AAC 90, read 2026-10-04; 2 AAC 90.420(h)(2) sets the knowledge test's retest wait and no figure)