Driving Lessons - Right Give-Ways

Turning right at a give-way line has slightly more to it than a left turn. As always your instructor would give you an instruction of something like - We'll go right at the end of the road. The clue here for you as the driver is the word END, which tells you you are coming to a give-way line.

Once again you then need to go through the MSN proceedure. For junctions this becomes MSPSL. Mirror, Signal, Position, Speed, Look.

As you are turning right you first check your rear-view mirror to see what is behind you and where they are. If they are too close then you would start to brake gently a little earlier so to show your brake lights and warn the following driver of your intentions to slow. Then you check your right wing-mirror to make sure you dont have anyone overtaking you - especially thinking of motorbikes. Following this with a right indication, making sure there are no other road turnings before yours.

You now need to position the car to the right-hand side of your lane so your right wheels are right next to the centre white line. This is so anyone turning left has the space to pass you on the left and also position themselves at the give-way line. As you approach you need to start braking with the intention to stop at the give-way lines at the end. Once you are within 5-7 metres of the end you then need to put the clutch all the way down, and select 1st gear. This now means you are ready to go again if the road is clear. Continue to slow to a creep once you are withing a metre or two, and have at least two good looks each to the left and to the right.

When you reach the give-way line, you need to keep the car positioned straight. Unlike a left turn where you follow the curve of the kerb. This is becasue on a right turn, if you turn even a little to the right you will be cutting across the wrong side of the road and so potentially blocking or at least obscuring the entrance to that road.

Your turning point for this type of turn is once you reach the centre of the road you are turning in to. So, once you are happy the road is clear you need to move off straight at first. Then once you feel the nose of your car has reached the centre (the white line) of that lane you can start to turn. This ensures you are not cutting across the wrong side of the road and getting to your side as soon as you can. As ever there are always exceptions to the rules. Sometimes, especially on quieter residential roads, you will have parked cars opposite you. In this instance you would need to turn straight away and cut across the wrong side of the road but its all you could do.

Once turned and in the new road, have a quick look in your rear-view mirror to see what you now have behind you, and gradually accellerate up to the speed limit or whatever you are comfortable with under that.

JV