Which parts of the roadway does the manual say are often the first to freeze as temperatures drop?
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A.
Intersections carrying heavy traffic.
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B.
Straight, flat stretches in direct sun.
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C.
Uphill sections with concrete surfaces.
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D.
Shady spots, bridges, and overpasses. Correct
The answer is "Shady spots, bridges, and overpasses."
The manual names shady spots, bridges, and overpasses as the first places to freeze. Two different mechanisms are at work. Shaded pavement never absorbs much sun during the day, so it starts the night colder than pavement that sat in direct light. Bridges and overpasses lose heat from both their top surface and their underside, with no ground beneath them to insulate the deck from cold air below. Choice A is where a driver lands who reads "freezes first" as "busiest," swapping heat loss for traffic volume; freeze order tracks pavement temperature, not how many cars cross the surface.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Intersections carrying heavy traffic.
Heavy traffic does not lower a surface's freezing temperature; the manual's cue is heat loss, not use. Assumes the intersection a driver watches most closely must also be the coldest, when freeze order tracks how a surface loses heat, not how many cars cross it.
B. Straight, flat stretches in direct sun.
Pavement in direct sun holds heat longer and freezes later, not first. Confuses 'exposed to open weather' with 'first to freeze,' when daytime sun actually warms the pavement and delays icing on that stretch.
C. Uphill sections with concrete surfaces.
The manual's freeze cues are shade and elevation over open air, not grade or pavement type. Reaches for hills and concrete as generic winter worries, when the manual keys on heat loss, not the shape of the road or what it is paved with.
This question tests your knowledge of Defensive Driving in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Snow and Ice," p.73..
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