Dual Carriageway and Multi-lane Roundabouts

It is time again for me to update this learning to drive blog of mine to reflect what I have been doing lately with my driving instructor.

In my last lesson I was introduced to driving on dual carriageways, and because I only booked a one hour session we covered joining from traffic lights and t-junctions properly, but only had one attempt using a slip road which was a full talk through by my instructor. In order to make more progress this time and be able to cover a wider range of traffic conditions and speed limits I booked a 2hr lesson with him.

At the beginning of the session as was usual, my instructor started with a recap of the last lesson's main topics, using questions to find out how much I remembered and then went on to mention that we would be doing more practice of dual carriageways, including more slip roads, higher speed limits and roundabouts like Apex corner which I had been hearing out in the Mill Hill/Hendon area!

We had to drive for about 15 minutes before we joined the first dual carriageway (watford way) via traffic lights, there was not a lot of cars around, but we soon encountered a slow moving honda civic car doing about 26mph on the 40mph road so my instructor talked me through overtaking it. He emphasised the importance of MSM, and that I should NEVER change lanes on a dual carriageway without using my mirrors and indicating even if I was only crossing the lane temporarily.



Slip Roads and Dual Carriageways
The first slip road we used to join a dual carriageway was somewhere in Borehamwood, and my instructor chose it because it was very long and it really helped me with understanding the principles of getting the approach right, assessing the speed of cars already on the road and accelerating away from the junction once I decided to join the dual carriageway. Because we used this place a few times I had situations where I had to stop and giveway due to the busy traffic we encountered on one ocassion, my instructor was quick to point out that I should not get confused with joining a motorway which I would have read about in the highway code where YOU MUST NOT STOP ON THE SLIP ROAD! There were some times where I got a bit scared, since some vehicles where going very fast and changing lanes suddenly without even indicating and I almost pulled out in front of them.

The other thing that we did was drive through some of the multi-lane roundabouts like apex and sterling corner and Mill Hill circus, but it was either a left turn or following the road ahead so it wasn't too difficult especially being controlled by traffic lights and most of the times I got stopped, giving me enough time to get prepared. My instructor did say that next time we booked a 2 hour session we will spend more time on these junctions and even pointed me to a roundabouts video he had posted on the internet just to give me an idea of what is involved, especially when turning right on a multi-laned roundabout from a dual carriageway. I also need to work on my driving manuevers, as I sometimes get things mixed up and can't remember which way to steer.

I will update you with how that goes, as I'm a bit busy at work right now, and also have a wedding to help my friend plan (maid of honor).