T Junctions Emerging

Having survived last week's driving lesson where my driving instructor sprung a surprised on me unexpectedly and made me deal with traffic, today I learnt a new procedure, dealing with T Junctions also called emerging.

Open Junctions

The first thing we did as always on our driving lessons was to recap on last week's skills by practising junctions turning left and right, dealing with some busy roads, including those controlled by traffic lights, making sure I could move off under pressure of cars behind me without stalling the vehicle. I wasn't perfect, but my ADI said I was making steading progress learning to drive and that it was time to introduce a new topic.

As usual out came the lesson briefing manual, and I was told how to identify a T Junction by either seeing houses at the end of the road, the upside down triangle road marking, the give way sign or the double short lines painted at the end of the road.
I would still need to use the MSPSL routine on this junction, and initially will be stopping, then using LADA to judge if it is safe to proceed.

Look to the right, left and then right again.
Asses the situation, noting if there is a safe gap in the traffic and other conditions around. My instructor stressed the importantance of giving way to traffic on the main road, including those coming from the left if neccessary (buses, lorries or HGVs that might need the extra space).
Decide on what you are going to do.
Act on your decision, emerging into the T junction only when you can see it is safe.

We then started to practise, beginning with open junctions where we had some visibility into the road before we got to the give way line, even though we still stopped for the first 3 or 4 attempts.

Closed Junctions

With almost half of the driving lesson gone, my driving instructor pulled me over on the left, and said we would now drive to a place where we would be able to deal with closed T junctions, having to emerge where there is very limited visibility, using peep and creep routine and later on if there was time, also go to a junction with a stop line.
My instructor told me that it is very easy to fail the DSA practical test at closed T junctions if I approached too fast, did not use LADA properly, or got pressurised by other road users.

Driving Lesson 4 Traffic lights

Dealing with Traffic!

Today's driving lesson which was my 4th, was mainly practising what we did last week, approaching junctions turning left and right, moving off and stopping and a bit of straight reversing. I was now getting up to 3rd gear, and making good progress when my driving instructor sprung a surprise on me!

I was concentrating on doing the best with my driving skills, and was following my ADI's instructions, so when he said 'at the give way we are going to turn left, I'll talk you through it', I didn't think much of it until I got to the end of the road and noticed it was a little busier than the roads we had been dealing with. Traffic I thought, Oh no!

I stopped in 2nd gear, put my handbrake on, selected first gear as my instructor talked me through checking the traffic to the right, left, then right again. When it was safe, he asked to go, and I turned left into the busier willesden lane in NW London, for the first time I had faster traffic coming towards me, and checking the rear view mirror also revealed cars were approaching from behind me. 'Take the next road on the left' I heard my driving instructor say, I breathed a sigh of relief as I used MSPSL to deal with the junction, as the traffic wizzed past me on the main road.

My instructor stopped me on the left, asked how I was doing, said okay and we continued with the driving lesson by doing some more practising on the junctions, more traffic and even got to deal with one road that had traffic lights on it. Before I knew it, the driving lesson was over and it was time to go home. Hopefully very soon I'll be able to drive through the NW2 and NW6 traffic to get home from a lesson.

Junctions turning left and right

Driving Lesson 3

On arriving at the training area, my driving instructor said that on this driving lesson we will be dealing with approaching junctions to turn left first, and later right. However before we started that, we would have a quick recap of the last lesson using some Q&A and try moving off and stopping for a couple of times to make sure that I had not forgotten these essential driving skills.

I forgot to mention in my last driving lesson that I changed gears, going up to 3rd gear, I mentioned this because I had some problems with gears while dealing with junctions.

MSPSL

Having successfully completed moving off and stopping a couple of times, my ADI pulled me over on the left of the road so that he could give me a briefing on approaching junctions to turn left (he always takes out this book with pictures and abbrevations when introducing a new subject), but I partly blocked someone's driveway, so he told me to move forward, and reminded me of SCALP.

In order to sucessfully deal with junctions according to the DSA standard, I will have to use a new system (not another one!) called MSPSL, this is an expansion of MSM which I was introduced to during my last driving lesson.



Mirrors. Since I was going to be turning left, it will be interior and left exterior.
Signal left.
Position. I was told to use the normal driving position, a door's width from the side of the road or parked vehicles.
Speed. I should keep the car at a brisk walk pace when about to turn left, and should usually be in 2nd gear.
Look. As I approach, I need to be looking at the junction for pedestrians about to cross or already in the road (I must give way to people that are already on the tarmac), obstructions in the road I'm about to turn into, as well as other cars.

With the driving theory dealt with, it was time to practice the real thing as required on the DSA test.

I was fully concentrating on previous skills I'd learnt, so did POM when moving off, checked my mirrors as I got into the road and accelerated, changing into the 2nd gear. 'We are going to be taking the next road on the left' my instructor says, and then proceeds to give me a full talk through (it's hard listening to him and doing at the same time), but I had problems steering, and was wide going round so my instructor had to help me get the car back in control.

We spent considerable time practicing this, with my instructor reducing the amount of instructions as we dealt with a few junctions to the left, after a while I got the jest of it, and was able to independently approach a junction in the car turn left without any assistance from my driving instructor.

Approaching a junction to turn right

Time for another look at that book of my ADI as we now want to tackle junctions to the right. From the diagram, we still need to use MSPSL, but the only changes are the position of the car is now just to the left of the lane divider, and I have to be more cautious as oncoming cars have priority which means I might have to stop the car, something that I didn't have to do for the left handed junctions.
The first two attempts when well, probably because I now could steer the car, was well into the hand of things as the driving lessons was almost an hour in, but more importantly I hadn't dealt with any oncoming vehicles.
During my third attempt of turning right, there were 2 oncoming cars as I approached the junction, and I was still in 2nd gear, trying to not have to stop, when the car shook and stalled! I panicked and didn't apply the handbrake and the car started to roll forward as I had put the gears into neutral position. My instructor used his brake to stop the car, asked me to apply the handbrake and then restart the engine. By the time this was done, the junction was clear so I continued.



It was a very interesting but hard driving lesson, but I learnt a lot and hope that I'm able to remember it all for my next session. Looks like it's going to be ages before I will be ready for the DSA driving test, but a least I'm in a better position than I was before my first lesson.