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Automotive & MechanicsChanging lanes with mirrors and blind spot
On every lane change the examiner scores your traffic check, the signal, your speed, the gap you choose and how you steer into the new lane. Changing lanes without checking the mirror and the blind spot over your shoulder is a critical driving error. It is the lane change of the California DMV Class C driving test.
Free to startScenarios
- A lane change to the left.
- A lane change to the right.
- The Supplemental Driving Performance Evaluation: more lane changes than the regular test.
The steps
- Left lane change: look to the left and behind you, check the left mirror and look over your left shoulder at the blind spot. Critical point
- Right lane change: look to the right and behind you, check the right mirror and look over your right shoulder at the blind spot. Critical point
- React safely to the traffic you see.
- Signal before you change lanes.
- Change lanes without going over the speed limit and at a speed that fits the traffic; you do not need to slow down first.
- Wait for an adequate gap.
- Keep a safe distance to the front, sides and rear of the vehicles going your way.
- Never cut in so that another driver has to brake or swerve. Critical point
- Turn the wheel smoothly into the new lane and move to its center.
- Leave a safe distance in front of your car after the change.
- Cancel the signal after the lane change.
To pass
- Each item here that you miss is marked as an error on the scoring maneuvers; you pass with no more than 15 of them.
- A step marked critical is a critical driving error: a single one fails the test.
Official source
California · DMV, DL 955
Driving Test Criteria (DL 955)
The California DMV publishes its Driving Test Criteria (DL 955) free: the pre-drive checklist, the scoring criteria and the critical driving errors.
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