Automatic Driving Lessons in Raheny-Mini Roundabouts
Welcome back to your Learner Driver Classroom. In our last session, we spoke about tackling roundabouts. Roundabouts are an everyday part of driving in Ireland. They can be confusing when you are learning how to drive and with a little practice, they get easier. If you haven’t seen the video on roundabouts, click the link below to see more.
Now lets talk about mini roundabouts. Students generally find the mini roundabouts even more confusing than the bigger roundabouts. The same general rules apply, the only difference is that they are much smaller, so you might need to ease off the accelerator slightly.
If you are taking the first exit to the left, it is the exact same as a normal roundabout. We MSPSL on approach. We mirror, signal left, keep our position in on the left, slow and into 2nd gear, off the clutch and L for look out to the right. If there are no cars coming from the right, keep going slowly in 2nd. That is usually easy enough.
Going straight through is where people usually have difficulty. The way we take these is similar to normal roundabouts except there is no need to drive all the way around the outside of the mini roundabout. There is not enough space for that and it can be very confusing for other road users. The trick here is easy. We use our MSPSL on approach, the only difference is we don’t signal on approach because we are driving straight through. So we check our mirrors, keep our position into the left, slow, 2nd off the clutch and observation ahead and to the right. If there are no cars coming from the right keep going. Once we are on the mini roundabout, look in the direction you are driving. Once we steer around the mini roundabout, then we can mirror left then signal to the left. Very important we don’t sacrifice good steering to check your mirror and then signal left. The video below explains more.
The video above explains taking the third exit or to the right in much more detail than I can here. The main things to take into account is the speed at which you drive around a mini roundabout. Some mini roundabouts are extremely narrow, so sometimes it is ok to drive around them in 1st gear.
As always, we do our MSPSL on approach. We mirror, signal to the right. Then we position our car over towards the centre line. Then we slow, into 2nd, off the clutch and observation ahead and to the right. If there are no cars coming from the right, we can keep it moving. If its narrow, slow it down and use first gear. Try use the accelerator lightly or not at all. Try roll around the mini roundabout. We want our steering to be perfect. And remember, when we pass exit 2, left mirror, left signal and exit in on the left. It is not the end of the world if you touch the road markings a small bit, just try to avoid them as best you can
Make sure you stay until the end of the video because I explain why so many people pick up grade 2s for observation at the roundabout.
Also, I never mentioned it in the video but if you are going straight through a mini roundabout and it is straight through, first exit, we left mirror, left signal on approach. Keep our position in on the left, slow and look to the right.
That’s it. Another classroom done and dusted. If you are enjoying the content please smash up the like button and subscribe to my channel. Stay tuned for more content and cool giveaways soon. Safe driving all
