What is the purpose of the speed-change lane when you enter an expressway?
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A.
Slow down before the first exit ramp appears.
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B.
Serve as an extra lane for slow-moving vehicles.
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C.
Gain the speed necessary before merging with traffic. Correct
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D.
Provide a place to stop before joining the expressway.
The answer is "Gain the speed necessary before merging with traffic."
The speed-change lane at an expressway entrance is where you build up to highway speed before merging into traffic. Drivers pick A because they picture speed-change as slowing down, the sense they have already seen on deceleration lanes leading to exits.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Slow down before the first exit ramp appears.
The speed-change lane at an on-ramp is for acceleration, not for slowing to an exit. This answer reads speed-change as deceleration, the direction learners have seen it used most often on off-ramps.
B. Serve as an extra lane for slow-moving vehicles.
The entrance speed-change lane is a temporary lane for drivers building up to expressway speed before merging, not a permanent lane held open for slower traffic. This answer confuses an entrance speed-change lane with a slow-vehicle or climbing lane kept for trucks on grades.
D. Provide a place to stop before joining the expressway.
The manual tells you to match traffic speed in the speed-change lane, not to stop before merging. This answer applies the yield-and-stop habit from surface intersections to an expressway on-ramp.
This question tests your knowledge of Lane Changes & Merging in Illinois. Source: Illinois Rules of the Road, "Expressway Driving," p.86..
Related Illinois questions
- Before you change lanes on an expressway, the manual instructs you to: →
- A MERGE sign appears on an expressway just before an on-ramp. What does the manual say about the expressway driver's role? →
- The manual sets a default rule for driving in the left lane on an interstate or controlled freeway. What is it? →
- On a multilane road, where does the manual require slow vehicles to travel? →
- You watch another driver weave from lane to lane to move faster than the surrounding traffic. What does the manual say about this? →
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