A yellow warning sign shows a truck symbol on a downhill slope with a percentage number below it. According to the Texas manual, what may be necessary?
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A.
Shift into neutral and coast down the slope to save fuel.
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B.
Pass any slower trucks before you reach the steep section of the hill.
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C.
Use a lower gear to help slow your vehicle down the grade. Correct
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D.
Ride your brakes steadily to control your speed the entire way down.
The answer is "Use a lower gear to help slow your vehicle down the grade."
The manual says it may be necessary to use a lower gear to slow the vehicle on an approaching downgrade. Choice D is the trap for drivers whose habit on a long descent is to keep steady brake pressure: the manual routes the job to the engine through a lower gear because riding the brakes down a grade overheats them and coasting in neutral gives up engine braking entirely.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Shift into neutral and coast down the slope to save fuel.
Removes engine braking entirely on a marked descent. This answer applies a fuel-saving folk rule from flat-road driving to a grade steep enough to warrant a warning sign of its own.
B. Pass any slower trucks before you reach the steep section of the hill.
Turns a slope warning into a passing instruction. This answer confuses the downgrade diamond with the 'trucks entering' warning near industrial exits, where lane position and speed are the actual concern.
D. Ride your brakes steadily to control your speed the entire way down.
Chooses steady braking over the engine braking the manual asks for. This answer falls back on the pedal-pressure habit for long descents, which is the exact overheating problem the lower-gear instruction exists to prevent.
This question tests your knowledge of Warning Signs in Texas. Source: Texas Driver Manual, "Warning Signs," p.29..
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