Dealing with roundabouts is one of the skills many learner drivers find very daunting, and would rather avoid them if possible, especially on the driving test, however you can not escape them especially if taking your test at the Borehamwood Centre in WD6 where on one particular driving test route I counted about 20 mini-roundabouts!
I'm going to give you a few tips that will help you better understand how to deal with them and hopefully boost your confidence, starting with mini roundabouts.
First of all there are two prerequisite skills which you should have that will go a long way to helping you deal with roundabouts and get you confident for the UK driving test.
1. Make sure you do not have a problem moving off. If you are consistently stalling the car when moving off, or are having problems remembering to select the 1st gear after stopping before moving off, then get plenty of practise doing this until you are confident with this skill.
2. You should be able to make smooth gear changes down, using block gear changes where necessary. Again practice changing down various gears until you are confident in this area. The key here is you use the brakes to slow down the car and then select the right gear to continue at that speed. Using block gear changes on the UK driving test will give you extra kudos with the examiner, as this is an advanced driving skill.
Get these two skills, and you are half way there when it comes to roundabouts.
You obviously know how to identify a mini roundabout, and know the basic roundabout rule that you only have to give way to traffic approaching from the right of the junction. It is absolutely key you know these 2 steps, as it will help you to deal smoothly with mini roundabouts.
First tip don't bother about signalling to come off a mini-roundabout, they are too small, and you usually don't have enough time to do it while you are steering and still keep proper control of the vehicle.
Second, you only need to signal at a mini roundabout when you are either turning right or left, so if following the road ahead no signals are required on a mini roundabout, as they could be confusing to other road users.
Third, when your instructor or examiner on the driving test is referring to a mini roundabout, there is a word that is constantly absent EXIT (some DSA examiners do mention exits, but remember not to signal to exit unless you can do so safely). The instruction will usually be 'at the roundabout I want you to turn right'
Okay now lets deal with the approach and what you need to do when you get to the roundabout.
A roundabout is a junction, and from your knowledge of junctions you will know a junction is either OPEN or CLOSED.
An OPEN junction is one which on the approach, you can see clearly what is approaching from either sides, and in the case of the mini roundabout we are only concerned with what is approaching from the right.
A mini roundabout is usually found in residential or built up areas, and you usually need to go round them very slowly (avoiding driving over the white central section).
Okay so we are approaching an OPEN mini roundabout and are turning right (it doesn't matter which way we are going, the speed we drive round the roundabout will almost be the same), we check our mirrors, put our signal on, our position in the road does not change (unless on the rare ocassion where you have 2 lanes approaching a mini-roundbout), we now look ahead, spot the roundabout, our main concern is traffic approaching from the right, so if there is anything that we think we might give way to, then our first thought is to try and slow the car down enough so that if possible we get to the roundabout just as that car goes past our entrance and we don't have to stop, but follow it if there is a safe gap. this is where smooth gear changes come in. Many people make a habit of stopping at a roundabout during the UK driving test when they could have just slowed the car enough to give way to the approaching traffic from the right.
If we find out that we do have to stop, then approach the junction in whatever gear you are in, stop at the give way line, put the car in 1st gear, and if stationary for more than about 3 seconds put handbrake on. You should also always put the hand brake on when you stop if there is a possibility you will roll back.
Once you have stopped at the roundabout, get that car at the biting point ready to go when you spot a safe gap in the traffic.
Spotting the gap requires practise, there are clues that can help though, the speed of cars, their signals, road position and the way the front tyres are pointing all give indications of what a car is about to do. For example a car approaching a mini roundabout from the opposite direction from you going ahead at the roundabout should not have any indicators on, will probably not slow down a lot, and the front wheels will be straight, so with that in mind you should be read to proceed once that car is in the middle of the roundabout, and has blocked any traffic that might come across from the right. This skill takes practise, so don't be worried if you don't get it right at the first few attempts, the aim is to be able to do it safely during the UK driving test, so keep working on it.
If you are approaching a CLOSED mini roundabout, where you can't see what is coming from the right, then treat it like a T junction, slow down enough (make sure you also select the right gear) so you can check what is coming from the right before deciding if it is safe to go or not (Look Assess Decide Act).
It is not possible for me to go through all the scenarios you might come across, but the most important thing is spot the roundabout, approach with the right speed to allow you to decide if you can go or not, always aiming for a gap in traffic if possible.
Finally when ever you are a passenger in a car, practice these decision making skills, and see if you do the same thing as who ever was driving, and don't be afraid to ask why they choose to go when they did (if it was done safely, and did not force another vehicle to slow down for them).
I will deal with major roundabouts in my next post.
Driving test tip: You do not need to indicate when leaving mini roundabouts, as there is not enough time to steer and signal at the same time, so concentrate on controlling the car, as the DSA examiner will penalise you if you lose control while trying to trafficate coming off.
Dealing with mini roundabouts
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