Hemel Hempstead Magic Roundabout (the Plough): how to drive it

Treat each of the six minis as its own roundabout: give way to traffic from your right, take the exit you want, then do the same at the next one. The roads between the minis are two-way, so you can go round the island either way; pick the way that passes fewer minis before you join. The simulator is built from the Plough's real layout in Hemel Hempstead.

Practise this in the simulator What it costs

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The Plough's real layout from above. Pick where you join and where you leave, guess which way round is shorter, then watch the route one mini at a time.

Joining fromLeaving by

Which way round is shorter?

Watch it, then drive it

1
Watch the official video
DVSA's short guide to the junction, roundabout and crossing skills the examiner looks for.
From the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency on YouTube. Free to watch.
More videos on YouTube
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
Test yourself
Test mode says nothing and marks you in the examiner's words. Three clean runs in a row and it is learnt.

Practise it on your phone

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The real layout

Six minis sit round a central island where the A414 and A4146 meet. Clockwise from the north the roads are Selden Hill, St Albans Road, Lawn Lane, Two Waters Road, Station Road and Leighton Buzzard Road. The position of each mini and the bearing of every road were read from OpenStreetMap. Simplified on purpose: every road has a single lane each way, where the real approaches widen to two or three.

Two-way, not two rings

Unlike Swindon, the Plough has no separate inner and outer ring. Each road between two minis carries traffic both ways, so going clockwise round the island you keep left on it, and going anticlockwise you keep left on the other half. Either way, at every mini the traffic on your right goes first.

One mini at a time

From Two Waters Road to Leighton Buzzard Road the short way is clockwise: Two Waters Road's mini, Station Road's mini, then out. Three give ways. The other way round is five. At each mini work out its own exit, left, straight on or right, and signal for that mini only.

Common faults

Trying to read all six minis at once and freezing. Fix: read only the one in front of you. Leaving a signal on from one mini to the next. Fix: cancel it as you clear each island and signal afresh. Going the long way round because you joined without a plan. Fix: count the minis each way before you arrive.

The traffic is the same every time

Fixed seed, fixed timestep. Three give ways in a row is exactly the thing you want to repeat until it stops feeling like six.

Common questions

How do you drive the Hemel Hempstead magic roundabout?

One mini at a time. Pick the way round that passes fewer minis, then at each mini give way to traffic from your right, signal for that mini's exit and go. Cancel the signal as you clear each island and start again at the next.

How many mini roundabouts does the Plough have?

Six, round one central island, joined by two-way roads. It was built in 1973 and is usually called the Magic Roundabout after the television programme.

Is it on the driving test?

It can be. Hemel Hempstead's test routes use the town's main roads, and the Plough sits where several of them meet. The skill it asks for is the same as a double mini: one give way at a time.

Is the simulator the real layout?

Yes, in position and direction: the six minis and the bearing of every road leaving them were read from OpenStreetMap. The lanes are simplified to one each way.

The rest of the set

Also included: the manoeuvre simulator and the 3D drives of the routes around your own test centre.