Swindon Magic Roundabout: how to drive it
Treat each of the five 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 outer ring runs clockwise, the inner ring runs anticlockwise, and you pick the shorter way round before you join. The simulator is built from Swindon's real layout, so it looks impossible in a photograph and drives like five ordinary minis.
Try it here, free
Swindon's real layout from above. Pick where you join and where you leave, guess the short way round, then watch the route one mini at a time.
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
The real layout
The five minis and the roads leaving them sit where they do in Swindon: the position of each mini and the bearing of every road were read from OpenStreetMap. Clockwise from the north-east the main roads are Shrivenham Road, Queens Drive, Drove Road, Fleming Way and County Road. One thing is simplified on purpose: every road and ring has a single lane each way, where the real approaches widen to several lanes.
One mini at a time
The only way to read it is the way the Highway Code tells you to read any roundabout: look at the one in front of you, give way to the right, and take the exit you want. Everything frightening about the layout comes from trying to see all five at once. You never have to.
Two rings, two directions
Between the minis each ring is one-way. The outer ring runs clockwise and goes straight across each mini. The inner ring runs anticlockwise and is a sharp left at each mini. They are separate roads, so which ring you take is the choice that matters. From Queens Drive to County Road the short way is the inner ring, three minis and three give ways; the outer ring is four.
Signals and counting
Each mini gets its own signal on approach, chosen by the clock rule for that mini. Between them there is no time for anything clever: signal, look right, go, and start again at the next one.
Common faults
Trying to read all five minis at once and freezing. Fix: read only the one in front of you. Leaving the signal on from one mini to the next. Fix: cancel it as you clear each island and signal afresh for the next. Forgetting to give way to the right at an inner-ring mini because it is going the other way. Fix: the rule does not change: traffic on your right goes first at every mini.
Exit by exit
Before you start: pick your road and the shorter way round. From Queens Drive to County Road that is the inner ring, anticlockwise. At each mini, work out its exit on its own: left, straight on or right, with the usual signal for that direction. Between minis: cancel the signal, look ahead, start again. Last mini: signal left as you reach your road, mirror, leave.
The traffic is the same every time
Fixed seed, fixed timestep. Five give ways in a row is exactly the thing you want to repeat until it stops feeling like five.
Common questions
How do you drive the Magic Roundabout in Swindon?
One mini at a time. Pick your exit and the shorter ring before you join, 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.
Who has priority on the Magic Roundabout?
The same as at any roundabout: traffic coming from your right at the mini you are joining. On the inner ring that traffic is going the other way round the island, but at the mini itself the rule does not change.
Is the simulator the real Swindon layout?
Yes, in position and direction. The five mini roundabouts and the bearing of every road leaving them were read from OpenStreetMap, and the rings run the way they do in Swindon: outer clockwise, inner anticlockwise. What is simplified is the lanes: every road and ring has one lane each way, where the real approaches widen to several.
Where are the magic roundabouts?
The best known is in Swindon. Hemel Hempstead (the Plough Roundabout) and Colchester (Greenstead) have one too, and both have their own page here. The skill they drill, reading one mini at a time, is the same one a double mini asks for.
Which way round is shorter?
It depends on your exit. From Queens Drive to County Road the inner ring (anticlockwise) passes three minis and the outer ring (clockwise) passes four, so the inner ring is the short way. Either is an ordinary give way at each mini.
Where does the map data come from?
From OpenStreetMap, which is built by volunteers and licensed under the ODbL. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The rest of the set
- Hemel Hempstead magic roundaboutSix minis joined by two-way roads around one island. Every mini is its own give way.Learn ›
- Colchester magic roundaboutFive minis joined by two-way roads around one island. Every mini is its own give way.Learn ›
- Single-lane roundaboutFour arms, one lane round. Give way to the right, take the second exit.Learn ›
- Three-arm roundaboutThree arms in a T. From the side road the second exit is a right turn, so it needs a right signal.Learn ›
- Mini roundaboutPainted island, same priority rules, and you still have to go round it.Learn ›
- Double mini roundaboutTwo minis, one after the other. Each is its own give way. Read them one at a time.Learn ›
- Two-lane roundaboutTwo lanes round, spiral arrows on the road. Right lane and a right signal for the third exit.Learn ›
- Spiral roundaboutLane lines spiral round the roundabout itself. Pick your lane on the approach and the paint carries you to your exit.Learn ›
- Signal-controlled roundaboutLights on every arm. Green gets you to the line: you still give way to the roundabout.Learn ›
- City gyratorySix arms, two lanes, uneven spacing. One arm only joins and one only leaves. Count carefully.Learn ›
Also included: the manoeuvre simulator and the 3D drives of the routes around your own test centre.