Stopping distances — Arkansas Permit Test
Stopping distances on the Arkansas permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
At 40 mph, it can take about 124 feet of total stopping distance, even with good tires, brakes, and dry pavement.
Most drivers guess a car stops far shorter than it does, and the gap they leave is too small.
At 40 mph, it can take about 124 feet total stopping distance.
At 55 mph, it can take about 225 feet of total stopping distance.
Stopping distance grows much faster than speed, so a little more speed costs a lot more road.
At 55 mph, it can take about 225 feet in total stopping distance.
If you cannot see a safe length ahead at the speed you are driving, you may not be driving at a safe speed.
Driving too fast for what you can see leaves no time to stop for something sudden in the road.
If you cannot see a safe length ahead at the speed you are driving, you may not be driving at a safe speed.
On the test
At 40 mph, about how much total stopping distance can a car need?
124 feet. Most drivers guess a car stops far shorter than it does, and the gap they leave is too small. Arkansas Driver License Study Guide, p.58: “At 40 mph, it can take about 124 feet total stopping distance.”
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 Arkansas Driver License Study Guide, published by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AR.pdf (Arkansas Driver License Study Guide, Volume 1, Edition 10, October 2026, Arkansas State Police, retrieved 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AR.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/AR-exam.txt (the text of the State Police's audio testing instructions, https://media.ark.org/dps/Audio-Testing-Instructions.pdf, read 2026-10-04; states the 20 correct answers that pass)
- https://dps.arkansas.gov/law-enforcement/arkansas-state-police/services-programs/driver-examination/ (read 2026-10-04; links the study guide and the audio testing instructions, states no count or mark)
- https://media.ark.org/dps/Non-Commercial-DL-Testing-Rules_Current-Effective-as-of-7.23.21.pdf (the State Police's Non-Commercial Driver's License Testing Rules, read 2026-10-04; Rule 1 sets the five-day retest wait and no figure)