Learning to Drive Complex Junctions

Your Driving Instructor at Blue School of Motoring will help prepare you for a training course on how to deal with Complex Junctions.

Take extra care when driving on complex junctions. These are usually joined onto dual carriageways or motorways, and can be made up of numerous lanes. You should:

• watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists, powered wheelchairs/mobility scooters and pedestrians as they are not always easy to see. When driving be aware that they may not have seen or heard you if you are approaching from behind.
• look out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.
• watch out for long vehicles which may be turning at a junction ahead; they may have to use the whole width of the road to make the turn.
• road users requiring extra care, like young children and the elderly.
• if you are learning to drive, complex junctions can be very confusing, always listen to your driving instructor and stay calm, by planning ahead.
• do not assume, when waiting at a junction, that a vehicle coming from the right and signalling left will actually turn. Wait and make sure.

You MUST stop behind the line at a junction with a ‘Stop’ sign and a solid white line across the road. Wait for a safe gap in the traffic before you move off.

The approach to a junction may have a ‘Give Way’ sign or a triangle marked on the road. You MUST give way to traffic on the main road when emerging from a junction with broken white lines across the road.

Dual carriageways. When crossing or turning right, first assess whether the central reservation is deep enough to protect the full length of your vehicle.

• if it is, then you should treat each half of the carriageway as a separate road. Wait in the central reservation until there is a safe gap in the traffic on the second half of the road
• if the central reservation is too shallow for the length of your vehicle, wait until you can cross both carriageways in one go