Motorcycle awareness — Delaware Permit Test

Be especially alert for motorcycles when you turn at intersections and when you pull out from a side road or driveway.

A driver pulling out of a driveway often looks for cars and misses the thin shape of a motorcycle.

You need to be especially alert for motorcycles when turning at intersections and when pulling out from a side road or driveway.

Motorcycles are only about 2 feet wide, compared with the 5- to 6-foot width of a car, so they are hard to pick out in traffic.

A driver who scans for car-sized shapes can look right at a motorcycle and not see it.

Motorcycles are only about two feet wide compared with the five- to six-foot width of an automobile.

Before you turn left in front of an oncoming motorcycle, look and look again, and make sure you know its speed.

Left turns in front of a motorcycle cause many crashes because drivers misjudge how fast it is coming.

Make sure you see the motorcycle and know its speed before you make a left turn.

Turn signals on most motorcycles do not cancel themselves, so before you turn in front of one, be sure the rider is really turning.

A rider with a forgotten blinker keeps coming straight, right into a car that pulled out in front.

Before you make a turn in front of a motorcyclist, be sure the rider is turning and not continuing straight ahead into your path with a forgotten turn signal still blinking.

When should you be especially alert for motorcycles?

When you pull out of a driveway. A driver pulling out of a driveway often looks for cars and misses the thin shape of a motorcycle. Delaware Driver Manual, p.99: “You need to be especially alert for motorcycles when turning at intersections and when pulling out from a side road or driveway.”