Space to the side — Connecticut Permit Test

Space to the side on the Connecticut permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

Avoid driving next to other vehicles on multi-lane roads; move ahead of the other vehicle or drop behind it.

Side by side you have nowhere to go if either of you needs the space. Ahead or behind, you both do.

Avoid driving next to other vehicles on multi-lane roads.

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

Keep as much space as you can between your vehicle and oncoming vehicles, which means not crowding the centerline on a two-lane road; in general it is safest to drive in the center of your lane.

A few feet from the centerline is all that stands between you and a closing speed of a hundred miles an hour.

In general, it is safest to drive in the center of your lane.

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

Make room for entering vehicles on a roadway with two or more lanes by moving over a lane when there is nobody next to you.

Moving over costs you nothing and gives a merging driver the whole lane they were aiming for.

Make room for entering vehicles on a roadway that has two or more lanes.

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

Keep extra space between your vehicle and parked cars, because someone could step out from a parked vehicle or from between vehicles, or a parked vehicle could pull out.

A door, a child or a car can come out of a line of parked vehicles with no warning at all.

Keep extra space between your vehicle and parked cars.

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

Split the difference between two hazards, and where one is more dangerous than the other, leave a little more space on the dangerous side.

You cannot avoid both, so the steering becomes a choice about which one you would rather be near.

“Split the difference” between two hazards.

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

Where possible, take potential hazards one at a time: slow and let an oncoming vehicle pass before overtaking a bicycle, so the bicycle gets extra room.

Meeting both at once forces you to squeeze past the cyclist. Waiting turns one impossible gap into two easy ones.

if you are overtaking a bicycle and an oncoming vehicle is approaching, slow down and let the vehicle pass first so that you can give extra room to the bicycle

Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22

On the test

What should a driver do rather than drive alongside another vehicle?

Move ahead of it or drop behind it. Side by side you have nowhere to go if either of you needs the space. Ahead or behind, you both do. Connecticut Driver's Manual, p.22: “Avoid driving next to other vehicles on multi-lane roads.”

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.
  • Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
  • 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.

All Connecticut permit topics

Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Connecticut Driver's Manual, published by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.