According to the manual, what visual cue on the roadway may tell you that black ice is present?
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A.
Your tires make a loud humming sound on dry-looking pavement
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B.
Steam is rising from the road surface where sunlight is hitting it
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C.
Frost is visible on nearby guardrails and traffic signs
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D.
The road looks wet but no spray is coming from the tires of other vehicles Correct
The answer is "The road looks wet but no spray is coming from the tires of other vehicles"
The manual warns that black ice, a thin layer of ice that forms on clear roadways as temperatures drop, is signaled when the pavement looks wet even though passing vehicles are not throwing spray from their tires. Drivers who reach for frost on guardrails (choice C) are borrowing a real cold-weather cue, but the manual's black-ice signal is wet-looking pavement with no tire spray, not frost on roadside metal.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Your tires make a loud humming sound on dry-looking pavement
Tire noise is not the signal the manual names; the manual points to a wet-looking surface with no spray from the tires of other vehicles. This answer trusts a driving-by-ear rule of thumb over the pavement-appearance cue the manual actually names.
B. Steam is rising from the road surface where sunlight is hitting it
The manual does not list rising steam as a black-ice cue; it points to how other vehicles' tires behave on the surface. This answer substitutes a weather-folklore image of steam over ice for the tire-spray observation the manual actually describes.
C. Frost is visible on nearby guardrails and traffic signs
Frost on roadside objects is not the black-ice indicator described in the manual; the reader is told to watch the pavement itself. This answer generalizes frost on cold roadside metal, a real winter cue, into a pavement-ice signal the manual reserves for tire spray.
This question tests your knowledge of Adverse Conditions in Pennsylvania. Source: Pennsylvania Driver Manual, "Road Conditions - Snow and Ice," p.41..
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