Driving Lessons - Rolling Give Ways

Once you are confident and competent with the MSM and MSPSL routines when approaching left or right turns and approaching give way lines, it is time to start Rolling give ways.

Here we need to remember the MSPSL procedure which is, Mirror, Signal, Position, Speed, look. When approaching Give Way lines until now, you would have been stopping at every one before progressing. In reality, as long as there are no vehicles on the main road you are entering, or there is a large enough gap to pull away without forcing anyone to slow down, then there is no need at all to stop.

However, you still need to slow down to a Creeping pace to ensure you wont pull out in front of anyone, and to make sure you don’t approach the end of a road so fast that you frighten someone to brake heavy or swerve – so endangering other road users. You need to be going at a speed which would make it easy to stop if you need to, and easy to move off if the road is clear. There is just a slight change to our MSPSL procedure until now. Whether you are to go left or right, as soon as you would normally put the clutch down to prepare to stop, you need to select 1st gear straight away. This means you are again ready to move off if need be.

So, on approach to a give way line you need to check the correct mirrors, signal, and position yourself either to the left or right of your lane. Next you start to slow down, always with the expectation you will have to stop at the end. As you get within 5-6 metres of the end of the road, put the clutch all the way down as you have been already, and select 1st gear. You must still keep the clutch down here though or you risk stalling the car or forcing it out onto the road prematurely. You need to slow right down to a creeping speed when you are about a metre away from the Give Way line, come off the break so not to stop completely, and start to look left and right at least a couple of times each to see if the road is clear. If the road is busy you can then just stop at the end as you have been so far. If the road is clear, you can then set the gas with your right foot, bring the clutch up to the biting point, have another look to make sure the road is still clear, and progress out onto the new road.

This saves time and keeps traffic moving, so preventing traffic jams. It takes a little bit of practice and the main thing is to be ready to approach the end very slowly. As always, trying to go too fast will slow you down in the long run, and be very dangerous for traffic on the main road.

JV