Reversing into a side road on the right

Reversing into a side road on the right is a useful manoeuvre when there is no side road on the left to use or on those occasions when you wish to park in a driveway, and this may be the safe option when you have no rear view, IE: you are driving a van.

The manoeuvre starts from a position before the road that we are going to reverse into. You move off and drive past the road we are going to use keeping just to the left of the centre of the road until you are passing the side road (note the timing of the signal). When you reach this position you will need to move over to the right hand kerb.

As you move to the start position note the severity of the corner - this will affect the amount of steering that we'll require. Sharper corners will require more steering and we'll need to position ourselves further from the kerb. The normal position is about 2 feet (about the width of a steering wheel or a grate in the road) from the kerb.

As we move past the road we are going to reverse into we'll need to check for any obstructions or things like children playing which would make it impractical to carry out the manoeuvre. We'll also check the point of turn for the degree of severity as we pass - remember this will affect how much steering will be required and how far we position ourselves from the kerb before starting.

Use the MSM move to the right and stop. Don't forget to check all round before preparing to start the manoeuvre. Can you remember how to adjust your position when we're preparing to move in reverse?
And what will we looking for when we check all round?

Once we begin reversing we'll be looking mainly over the left shoulder through the rear window but continue to make checks in the nearside mirror to check our position as well as looking for other traffic or pedestrians. Just before the point of turn we'll check all round again - can you remember why?

At the point of turn adjust your position - we need now to be looking mainly through the rear BUT OVER THE RIGHT SHOULDER - this will allow you to keep a better check of how the vehicle is in relation to the kerb - don't forget to keep looking for other traffic and pedestrians.

As we come straight in the new road - again adjust your position so that you're looking mainly to the rear over the left shoulder - still keep checking for other road users.

If we do encounter any traffic or pedestrians we'll wait for them to pass before continuing - once in the new road we would stop and wait for any pedestrians to finish crossing if necessary.

When we begin to reverse we will go back in a straight line until the rear wheels are in line with the point of turn which is the point where we come across the first curved kerbstone, then begin steering round the corner maintaining the same distance from the kerb throughout the exercise.
It will help you to judge your position by remembering the rear wheels are positioned under the rear side windows and using the offside exterior mirror to check on your position.

Once we are halfway round the corner, hold the steering lock until we are almost parallel in the new road and then straighten up.When we are parallel to the kerb in the new road reverse a short distance back - about 8 car lengths and come to a normal stop. We need to drive far enough back to allow us to move off to the correct side of the road and still have time to go through our routine when we emerge from the junction.

Throughout the exercise we'll be making sure that we don't hit the kerb or stray onto the wrong side of the road.