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Section check: When Something Breaks
Five lessons, six decisions. Get one wrong and it will tell you which lesson to go back to, and you can come again as many times as you like. Finishing this section means you got all six right, not that you scraped a pass. The Road Badge itself comes after all eight sections.
Step 1 of 6
1Decide
A friend tells you e-bikes are fine on the sidewalk, because his cousin rides one there all the time.
Right, and the cousin isn’t wrong either. Both things can be true at once, because the sidewalk answer is one of the most local answers there is – a town’s, sometimes even smaller than that. The only question worth anything is what the rule is where you’re riding, at your age, on that machine.
Look at what each of those actually gives you. Somebody else riding somewhere proves they ride there, not that you may. And an officer is a fine person to ask but they’re not always around, and their answer is about their own patch, which may not be the town you’re riding into. Go back to 6.1.
Pick the right one to carry on.
2Find them
Which of these actually decide whether you're allowed to ride here?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
3Decide
The road ahead looks busier than you expected, and you've got three blocks left.
Yes, and walking is a genuine answer, not a cop-out. Pushing it is the one option that takes you out of both problems at once – you’re not in traffic, and you’re moving at the speed the concrete and the driveways were built around. Three blocks is about four minutes.
Both of those are the instinct, and the third is the worst version of it. Riding against traffic measured the biggest risk in the whole research, worst for riders your age – and being able to see the cars coming doesn’t help, because the ones that hit you come out of driveways and never see you at all. Go back to 6.2.
Pick the right one to carry on.
4Decide
Your ride to a friend's crosses two town lines, and you only know your own town's rule.
Yes, and it’s the only one that works without a lookup. One way of riding for the whole route, chosen to satisfy the tightest rule you actually know about, and you never have to notice a boundary at all. Then go and learn the other two towns properly at home, where it costs nothing.
Look at what each of those needs from you. Your own town’s rule stops applying the moment you cross the sign. And changing behaviour at each boundary needs you to know all of them and to spot every sign, on a route where a boundary can be an unmarked line down the middle of a road. Go back to 6.3.
Pick the right one to carry on.
5Decide
You're leaving a friend's at dusk. You've got a rear blinky flashing, and no front light.
Yes, and it’s the boring option again, and it’s still the right one. Borrow a front light, walk it, get collected – all cheap, all available. The one thing not on that list is riding towards a side road with no way for the driver there to know you exist.
Both of those leave the front of you dark. A rear blinky tells the people already behind you, who are rarely the problem. And the sidewalk at dusk puts you at driveway after driveway, unlit, arriving from the one strip drivers aren’t searching. Go back to 6.4.
Pick the right one to carry on.
6Decide
You find a page that answers your question perfectly, in plain English.
Yes, and those two checks catch nearly everything. A summary is a lead worth following and not the answer – the code, the bill, or the official page is. And a page with no date on it can’t tell you whether it’s describing a rule that still exists.
Both of those can go wrong the same way. A plain-English page is usually somebody’s summary, and summaries go stale silently. Counting websites just tells you which version got copied most, and the most-copied version is often the oldest one. Go back to 6.5.
Pick the right one to carry on.
Section done: When Something Breaks.
Every question right. Seven more sections and the Road Badge is yours. Show a parent this screen tonight, and tell them one thing from this section you did not know before.
Next section: When It's Real