Interactive tool · October 2026
Where to start a right turn into a side road
A T-junction with a side road on your right, seen from above, with four dashed lines across the major road. Choose a situation: line 1, the centre line of the side road, where the turn starts; line 2, about 2 m back, where you can roll into a gap; and what goes wrong at line 3, just before the side road, and at line 4, past the middle of it.
The situation
Normal plays at 70% of real speed, so the cars keep pace with Kris’s explanation. Real time shows how fast it really happens; slow motion is half speed. The speeds, distances and times in the text are the real ones.
- 1 Level with the centre line of the side road
- 2 Level with the middle of the side road's near lane, halfway between the kerb and the centre line
- 3 1.5 m before the near edge of the side road (its left-hand kerb line)
- 4 1.5 m past the centre line of the side road (about 38% of the far lane)
Where this comes from
- Turning right from a major road onto a minor road. Rules of the Road (RSA, 2026), p. 128: take up a position just left of the middle of the road; do not turn the steering wheel until you are ready to make the turn; when a safe gap occurs in oncoming traffic, finish your turn on the left-hand side of the road you are entering; do not cut the corner; do not make a ‘swan neck’.
- Right of way. Rules of the Road, p. 127: turning right, the traffic coming straight through from the opposite direction has right of way; a vehicle from the opposite direction turning left into the same road goes first; traffic on the road ending at a T-junction must wait.
- The turning point. RSA driver tester marking guidelines, Making Your Mark, Position Turning Right: the turn should be made around the centre point of the road being entered; ‘cutting’ the turn, ‘swan-necking’ and hitting or mounting a kerb unnecessarily are faults.
- Our own teaching, not RSA rules: waiting at line 2 and rolling into the turn; about 30 cm from the centre line; the speeds, distances and timings in the animations, which are worked out for a Toyota Corolla (4.37 m long, 2.64 m wheelbase) and are examples, not measurements.
Educational tool only. It does not replace the Rules of the Road or qualified instruction.
Want to practise right turns with an instructor?
We build the routine on quiet roads first, then on busier ones, until timing the gap feels natural.
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