Tailgating — New Hampshire Permit Test
Tailgating on the New Hampshire permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
For safety reasons drivers should avoid traveling closer to a vehicle than a four-second following distance.
Four seconds is about what perception, reaction and braking add up to, which is why the gap is measured in time and not car lengths.
a four-second following distance.
A driver being tailgated unsafely should find a safe location to pull over and let the vehicle pass.
You cannot control the driver behind, and letting them go costs a few seconds against a rear-end collision.
drivers should find a safe location to pull over and let the vehicle pass.
Following another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent is a violation of the law and is punishable by a fine.
Tailgating is not merely bad manners here. It is an offense with a fine behind it, whether or not anything happens.
Following another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent is a violation of the law and is punishable by a fine.
On the test
What following distance should a driver keep?
Four seconds. Four seconds is about what perception, reaction and braking add up to, which is why the gap is measured in time and not car lengths. New Hampshire Driver's Manual, p.16: “a four-second following distance.”
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 New Hampshire permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against New Hampshire Driver's Manual, published by the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/NH.pdf (New Hampshire Driver's Manual, Rev. 11/25, New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/NH.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, folioMarker, nonLawPages, signGalleryPages and the extraction flag, each with its basis)