Driving Lessons – Roundabouts

When learning to drive, one of the most feared lessons is when roundabouts are introduced. They appear dangerous, busy, compact and fast. Not to mention complicated, and it can take a good number of lessons, and attempts, to become comfortable and even begin to understand how to approach them.

When approaching a roundabout, your instructor will give you a direction. This may be by either directing you to go left, right or straight ahead, giving you an exit number i.e. We will take the 3rd exit…. or a mixture of both.

Now, with roundabouts you are always hoping to be able to go straight away, without stopping. Once you have your direction, as always you then need to check your corresponding mirrors and indicate if necessary. If left you would check you interior then left wing mirror. If right you would check you interior then right mirror. If straight ahead you need to just check you interior mirror. Sometimes you will have a roundabout with more than the usual 4 exits and the turning you’re taking might cause confusion if to indicate or not. The general rule here is that if it’s a second exit and looks to be to the left, you will indicate left after you have passed the first exit. If you imagine the roundabout as a clock face and the exit is beyond 1 o’clock, then you would indicate right.

Once you have checked your mirrors and indicated if necessary, you then need to slow and select 2nd gear in anticipation you might be able to go straight away. You then need to think about giving way to your right once getting to the roundabout. You need to give way to any vehicle that will be crossing the front of your car from the right, not just because the vehicle might be on your right…

So, on approach you can ignore (to start with) the vehicles on your left. These have to give way to you. So looking straight ahead, you need to give way to anyone indicating right as they will be coming past you. If they are not indicating this means they are going straight ahead and if left they are obviously going left, so neither do you need to worry about. Then you look right, and you need to give way to anyone indicating right as they will have to cross you to get to their right exit, and if they are not indicating too as they again will have to cross you. If they are going left, then of course they will not be crossing you so you do not need to wait for them. Read this paragraph again and think about each individual sentence and it will make sense. Once you make the decision to go, this is now the time to look to your left briefly, just to ensure the vehicles are stopping, which they must, and will, as YOU and on THEIR right.

The difficulty can be when you get to the roundabout and you need to stop to give way to traffic crossing you from your right. You now need to select 1st gear as you would normally to be able to move off, and are either waiting for a gap in the traffic, or waiting for another vehicle to Block Off the traffic you are having to wait for.
You are now looking out for 1 of two circumstances. This is when you do start to look to the left because you are waiting for a vehicle to appear that is turning right. The reason for this is that as soon as they now move off the traffic straight ahead of you, and to your right, will both stop as they have to give way to this vehicle as they are crossing them both from the right. This is then your chance to go so you need a good amount of gas, biting point, and then you are off. And likewise you can also look out for a vehicle to appear from the exit straight ahead of you, which is not indicating (so going straight ahead). The traffic on your right will again stop as they have to give way to this vehicle on their right, and this is also your opportunity to go.

On larger roundabouts, Positioning become key. If you are going left, you should position yourself to the left as you approach, and then keep left as you enter the roundabout and exit. When going straight ahead you also position to the left of your lane as you approach (usually on the entrance to a larger roundabout, there will either be two lanes, or the road will be wide enough to fit 2 vehicles) and must keep to the left as you enter, once you have passed the first exit that you are not taking, you then indicate left to let everyone know you are coming off at the next. When you are going right at a roundabout, this is the only time you should position yourself to the right, keep right on the roundabout, again indicate left as you pass the last exit you are not taking to let everyone know you are coming off at the next exit, and exit the roundabout selecting the left lane of the new road.

When going straight ahead it is very important not to Straight Line the roundabout, you must keep to the left hand side, this is because you will usually be able to fit two vehicles on the roundabout at the same time, so to not get in anyones way you must stay in the correct position. It is very common for someone to be going straight ahead, and another to be going right, to enter the roundabout at the same time.

On first read this will probably sound as complicated as you expected, but read again and try and take in the information slowly and it will make much more sense.

JV
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