At night, while using your high beams, you catch up to a slower vehicle and follow it. What headlight adjustment does California require?
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A.
Dim your high beams only when the driver ahead flashes their brake lights.
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B.
Dim your high-beam headlights to low beams within 300 feet of the vehicle you are following. Correct
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C.
Dim your high beams only when driving on lit city streets.
The answer is "Dim your high-beam headlights to low beams within 300 feet of the vehicle you are following."
California requires you to dim your high-beam headlights to low beams within 300 feet of a vehicle you are following. If you wait for a courtesy flash from the driver ahead, as choice A suggests, you are following a driver-to-driver custom rather than California's printed distance rule.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Dim your high beams only when the driver ahead flashes their brake lights.
The 300-foot rule is tied to a measured distance, not to any signal from the driver ahead. Substitutes waiting for a courtesy flash from the car ahead for California's measured 300-foot trigger.
C. Dim your high beams only when driving on lit city streets.
The 300-foot rule applies on any road at night, not only on lit city streets. Narrows a statewide following rule to lit city streets, where high-beam glare on nearby drivers feels most obviously rude.
This question tests your knowledge of Vehicle Equipment in California. Source: California Driver Manual, "Using Your Headlights," p.11..
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