Parking brake use — Louisiana Permit Test
Parking brake use on the Louisiana permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Use your parking brake every time you park, whether the car is manual or automatic and the ground is hilly or flat.
The part that holds a car in park can break, and the parking brake keeps the car from rolling away.
Whether your car is a manual or automatic, the terrain is hilly or flat, you should use your parking brake every time you park.
Set the parking brake while your foot is still on the brake pedal and before shifting into park; this reduces strain on the parking pawl.
Setting the brake first lets it hold the car's weight, so the small part in the gearbox does not have to.
You should set the parking brake while your foot is still on the brake pedal and before shifting into “park”.
Disengage the parking brake before driving again.
Driving with the parking brake on wears out the brakes and can damage the car.
Lastly, don’t forget to disengage the parking brake before driving again.
On the test
When should you use your parking brake?
Every time you park. The part that holds a car in park can break, and the parking brake keeps the car from rolling away. Class D & E Driver's Guide, p.67: “Whether your car is a manual or automatic, the terrain is hilly or flat, you should use your parking brake every time you park.”
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Class D & E Driver's Guide, published by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pdf (Class D & E Driver's Guide, DPSMV2052 (R08/25), Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA-exam.html (the OMV's Permits page, https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/permits/, archived 2026-10-04; the 40-question count)
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/resources/driver-manuals/
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/new-licenses/ (read 2026-10-04; "An 80% is the minimum passing score for the knowledge test.")