Safe driving · hard
A car in the lane to your left is stopped, waiting to make a left turn. The pavement to its right is wide enough for another vehicle. When may you pass it on the right?
- A Never; passing on the right is prohibited in every circumstance
- B Only when the turning vehicle signals you forward with a hand gesture
- C When you can do so safely, staying on the paved roadway and without driving onto the shoulder Correct
- D Only between sunrise and sunset
Why C is correct
Passing on the right is permitted when the vehicle ahead is making or waiting to make a left turn and the pavement to its right is sufficient to pass safely without leaving the roadway. The rule recognises that in this specific geometry, the right side is the only direction traffic can flow, and forbidding it would trap a lane of cars behind every left-turner. What the rule never permits is passing on the right by using the shoulder, the gutter or an unpaved edge, and it never removes your duty to yield to pedestrians and cyclists who lawfully occupy the space you are entering.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Never; passing on the right is prohibited in every circumstance
- An absolute ban would make every left-turning car a full blockage, which is why the rule is conditional rather than prohibitive. The conditions are pavement, safety and the left-turn situation — not a blanket ban.
- B. Only when the turning vehicle signals you forward with a hand gesture
- Gestures have no standing in the rule. The permission comes from the geometry — a left-turning vehicle and adequate paved width — not from a hand signal, which carries no legal weight and no information you can rely on.
- D. Only between sunrise and sunset
- Time of day is irrelevant to the passing-on-the-right rule. What changes with darkness is your ability to see pedestrians and debris in the space you are passing through, which affects the safety judgement but not the rule itself.
On the road
Rush hour on a four-lane arterial: the left lane is queued behind a box truck waiting to turn into a side street. The right lane is clear and wide. You ease past on the right at walking-pace speed, watching the crosswalk the truck is blocking your view of — a cyclist is there, exactly where the rule told you to look, and your three-mph pass leaves everyone unhurt and unstartled.
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Sources
- Section referenced: Colorado Driver Handbook — Passing
- Colorado Driver Handbook, January 2025 (DR 2337) — English PDF · Spanish PDF
- Retrieved 2026-10-17 from Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles
Every question on this page is written in our own words and is not copied from the handbook. Reviewed by Ethan Wen on 2026-10-18.