T-junction: look right, left, right

Watch it, then drive it

1. 1

   Watch how it is done

   Instructors film this one step by step. Watch a couple before your first try.

   More videos on YouTube↗
2. 2

   Drive it with the coach

   Guided mode puts the reference points on screen and stops you the moment you drift.

   Practise this in the simulator
3. 3

   Test yourself

   Test mode says nothing and marks you in the examiner's words. Three clean runs in a row and it is learnt.

The rule

Highway Code rule 172 says you must give way to traffic on the main road when you emerge from a junction with broken white lines across the road. Rule 170 adds the how: look all around before you emerge, and do not cross or join a road until there is a gap large enough for you to do so safely. If parked vehicles hide the road, edge forward slowly until you can see properly.

Where it sits on the marking sheet

Junctions – observation is the box. Examiners mark it when you pull out without looking, look but go anyway, or force someone on the main road to brake or swerve. In the simulator, a car on the main road slowing down because you pulled out in front of it is a serious fault, the same line the examiner draws.

Creep and peep

When a parked van blocks your view, stopping at the line and guessing is not enough. Creep forward at walking pace until the front of the car is just far enough out to see past it, stop, and look again both ways. Only the bonnet should poke out: if a car on the main road has to move over for you, you went too far.

How you practise it here

Watch drives it for you with the commentary running, so you see the whole thing once before you touch anything. Guided puts the reference points on screen and stops you the moment you drift. Test says nothing and marks you in the words the examiner uses. Three clean Test runs in a row counts as learned, and it comes back two days, a week and three weeks later so it is still there on the day.

Step by step

These are the words the simulator says to you, in order, the same commentary you would get from the passenger seat.

1. 1You will turn right at the T-junction ahead. Check your mirrors and blind spot, then move off.
2. 2Give way lines ahead. Mirrors, signal right and slow down. Keep just left of the centre of your road.
3. 3Traffic on the main road goes first. Stop with the front of your car at the give way lines.
4. 4Look right, left and right again. The parked van hides the road on your right: creep forward slowly until you can see past it.
5. 5Now you can see. Wait until there is a gap both ways big enough that nobody has to slow down for you.
6. 6Go now, at a steady pace, and look right once more as you pull out.
7. 7Straighten up on your side of the road, check your mirror and make sure the signal has cancelled.
8. 8Slow down and stop on your side of the road.
9. 9You looked both ways, crept out to see and waited for a safe gap. Stop here and tap Finished.

Common questions