Open doors and bicycle lanes — Massachusetts Permit Test
Open doors and bicycle lanes on the Massachusetts permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
The Dutch Reach means opening a vehicle door with your far hand, the one further from the door.
Using the far hand turns your body toward the window, so you see what is coming. It also stops the door flying open.
Open the door with your far hand (the hand farther from the door).
Before opening a vehicle door you should check the rear-view mirror and then the side-view mirror.
Two mirrors before the hand moves. The Dutch Reach is the third step rather than the first.
When opening a vehicle door, drivers and passengers should do the following: 1. Check your rear-view mirror. 2. Check your side-view mirror.
Drivers must stop behind a bicycle box, even when it is empty, and wait for a green light.
The box is a rider's place to wait where drivers can see them. A car in it puts them back in the blind spot.
Drivers must stop behind the bicycle box (even when it's empty) and wait for a green light.
Where bicycle lanes cross an intersection, drivers must stop at the stop line to let pedestrians and bicyclists cross safely.
The stop line is set back so the crossing is in front of you rather than beside you.
At intersections, drivers must stop at the stop line to allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross safely.
Drivers must always check for oncoming bicyclists when turning across a bike lane, which may mean looking to the side and behind the vehicle.
A rider in a lane of their own comes up behind your shoulder, where no mirror looks.
Drivers must always check for oncoming bicyclists when turning across a bike lane. This may require looking to the side and behind the vehicle.
When turning right, drivers must yield to pedestrians and bicyclists who are crossing.
The turn crosses their path at the exact moment you are looking left for a gap.
When turning right, drivers must yield to pedestrians and bicylists who are crossing.
In the common bicycle crash scenarios the manual shows, the motor vehicle is at fault in all of them.
Left cross, right hook, drive out and sideswipe are all the driver's error. That is the point the page makes.
The motor vehicle is at fault in all of these crashes and drivers must always be alert for bicycles that may be hidden by other vehicles or buildings.
On the test
What is the Dutch Reach?
Opening the door with the hand further from it. Using the far hand turns your body toward the window, so you see what is coming. It also stops the door flying open. Massachusetts Driver's Manual, p.116: “Open the door with your far hand (the hand farther from the door).”
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
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All Massachusetts permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Massachusetts Driver's Manual, published by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MA.pdf (Massachusetts Driver's Manual, Revised April 2026, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14 from mass.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MA.pages.txt (pdftotext -layout over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 8, folioMarker, nonLawPages, signGalleryPages and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)