Expressway passing — Maine Permit Test
Expressway passing on the Maine permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
On an expressway, stay in the right-hand lane unless you are passing.
A slow car cruising in the left lane forces faster drivers to weave around it.
You should always be in the right-hand lane unless you are passing.
If a car is directly behind you in an adjacent lane, it will not show in your side mirrors, so check over your shoulder before passing.
The car hidden at your rear corner is the one you move into.
If a car is directly behind you in an adjacent lane, it will not be visible in the side mirrors.
When another car is passing you, do not speed up.
Speeding up as you are passed traps the other car in the lane of oncoming or faster traffic.
Don't speed up when being passed.
After passing, make sure you can see the entire passed vehicle in your rearview mirror before moving back into the right lane.
Cutting in too soon puts your rear bumper in front of the car you just passed.
Make sure you can see the entire passed vehicle in your rearview mirror before moving back to the right lane.
Do not cruise along in the blind spot of the vehicle next to you, and do not stay alongside another vehicle longer than you must.
A driver who cannot see you will change lanes into you.
Never cruise along in the blind spot of the vehicle next to you.
On the test
On an expressway, when should you be in the left lane?
When passing. A slow car cruising in the left lane forces faster drivers to weave around it. Maine Driver’s License Manual, p.65: “You should always be in the right-hand lane unless you are passing.”
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 Maine Driver’s License Manual, published by the Maine Secretary of State, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-05.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/ME.pdf (Maine Driver’s License Manual, Rev 4/24, Maine Secretary of State, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/ME.pages.txt (scripts/me-text.sh: plain pdftotext except physical 82, which is -layout; the fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/ME-exam.html (Maine BMV, Drivers License Exam page, https://www.maine.gov/sos/bmv/driver-licenses-and-ids/car-license/drivers-license-exam, read 2026-10-04; states both exam figures; sha256 pinned under examSource)
- https://www.maine.gov/sos/bmv/driver-licenses-and-ids/car-license/driver-license-manual-and-Maine-motorist-handbook-and-study-guide (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)