Online driving tutorial - Spiral Roundabouts

These very large, busy spiral roundabouts are becoming more and more frequent these days. It’s essential that learner drivers know how to deal with them correctly. Failure to do so could be dangerous once they’re driving alone as lane disciple could easily lead to accidents.

Learners shouldn’t fear them. Yes, they look big and they’re always busy. The good news is that the hardest part is done for us. So the decision to go or stop is now as simple as obeying the lights.

That difficulty is now replaced with the question ‘which lane should I be in?’ and staying in lane.

Lanes and markings

On approach you’ll more than likely see signs showing you the lay out of the roundabout. This will help in making your decision about which lane to be in. Look out for markings on the floor. This could be in the form of arrows, or words showing you which lane is for where.

Quite often, the arrows will all point straight on. This is to prevent anyone from trying to turn immediately right as soon as they reach the roundabout. 

Left at the roundabout

If you’re turning left get in the left hand lane. It will never be wrong. When you’re going straight across it could be the left, it could also be the middle (if there is one). In the diagram below it’s the red arrows for straight and blue for left.

Straight over the roundabout

Note how the red path started in the middle and by the time they passed exit 1, they’re now in the outside lane. Hence the name, spiral. By following the markings, the lane will push you outwards. You’ll leave the roundabout in your normal drive position in the left most lane. 

The abundance of markings all over the junction can sometime be confusing. Follow the line that applies to you and ignore the others. Your line should always be a smooth, gradual curve. 

It’s turning right that causes the issue for those with minimal experience

Right at the roundabout

The image above shows the path you should be taking for turning right at the spiral roundabout. Be in the right hand lane on approach and stay to the right. When you reach the first set of lights (¼ of the way around the roundabout) you’ll be in the right hand lane still, but immediately after, this is where you’ll need to spiral outwards. By the time you’ve gone past your penultimate exit, you should be in the outside lane.

The blue arrows shows the correct path. Often when there is confusion on the markings, motorists can some times opt for the middle lane, the red arrows. This is acceptable, but it does mean more work when you come off. An additional lane change to get back in the left hand lane. 

Get across

Here we can see the same roundabout, just coming from a different direction. The annotated diagram shows the ¼ way round point and another tip I often tell students to help get them across to the far lane, which sometimes isn’t guided with markings.

If there are no lines to shepherd you across, aim the vehicle after the ¼ way around point towards the island on the far side. Any car on your left at this point is going straight across. You’ll not be cutting anyone up, but a check on your mirrors can’t hurt to make sure someone else isn’t getting it all wrong.

Don’t forget to MSM as you leave the junction, the same way as you would a normal roundabout.

Not all spiral roundabouts are the same. Some time they have 4, 5, 6 exits. Occasionally multiple lanes can take you to the same place (the left is always the one to opt for as it’ll take you into your normal drive position when you come off).

Some times they’re well signed, some time they’re not. Occasionally you’ll not have lights to help you on, in which case you treat it like a regular roundabout in terms of coming on. The diagram below helps highlight some of these oddities.

Multiple lanes for same direction

Here there are two lanes for turning right, where all other approaching directions only have one and the green circle shows there are no lights helping you come on here and no lights on the actual roundabout itself at the ¼ of the way round stage for those coming from the right in this image.

The lack of consistency is a challenge for those learning, so a slow approach and driving speed on these junctions will potentially give you the time to deal with any oddities whilst travelling around them.

This ten minute, annotated video shows multiple attempts at these type of roundabouts from different directions and shows how you should negotiate them correctly.

The free online driving tutorials continue with the manoeuvres next.