Michigan driving lesson · Emergencies and Special Situations
Following distance, stopping and night driving
A 3-minute lesson from the Michigan course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
You need time and space to react. Michigan's rules of thumb are measured in seconds for following and in feet for headlight use, and night driving shrinks what you can see.
To check it, when the vehicle ahead passes a sign or other fixed point, count "one-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three." If you reach the point before finishing three seconds, you're too close.
Headlights must be on from one half-hour after sunset to one half-hour before sunrise, and whenever visibility is reduced. Use low beams in daytime fog, rain or snow.
If oncoming drivers don't dim, look at the right edge of the road ahead, not into their lights; glare can blind you for several seconds. A dirty windshield makes glare worse.
On a dark rural road with high beams on, you see headlights approaching about a quarter mile away. Switch to low beams before the car is within 500 feet — about a football field and two-thirds.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
When must headlights be turned on, in relation to sunset and sunrise?
From sunset to sunrise only
From 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise
From 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunrise
Only once it's fully dark
Answer: From 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/2 hour before sunrise
Headlights must be on from one half-hour after sunset until one half-hour before sunrise, and anytime visibility is reduced.