Sorry - Another Silly Question About Life Savers

[Lerm]

Hello All,

I'm getting myself a bit confused with my lifesavers, particualy when moving off from junctions and roundabouts.

Say I come to a T junction and I want to turn right, I stop at the line, look left, look right, nothing coming, then should I be doing life savers over both shoulders before I move off? Also, what is the case with roundabouts, I stop because, for example, something is coming and I need to wait to move off, should I be doing life savers over both shoulders again? Even if I am stopping for a second or two?

My gut instinct is to do the checks, they are calledl life savers for a reason, but I was confused!!

Any advice is greatly welcome as my mod2 test is immiment!

[Joeman]

General rule of thumb is to do a lifesaver to check you're not about to pull into the path of another road user.

So for example, if sat at a t-junction turning Left, once you decide its clear to proceed, do a lifesaver over your LEFT shoulder to look for any crazy cyclists etc undertaking you.

In this situation, there would be little point doing a right hand lifesaver - what would you see? and if you did see something, what could you do about it other than pull left to get out of its way?

Also, if you take too long looking behind you, more traffic might arrive making it dangerous to pull out...

EDIT: thats my opinion but do what your instructor tells you that you need to do to pass your test!

[Glorian]

I was always taught to look over the shoulder of the direction you're going.

I tend to keep an eye on the traffic in the mirrors constantly anyhow so not much tends to sneak up on me. But always do a life saver anyway =)

And i always do one as i leave a roundabout.

So coming to a 4 exit roundabout going off the 3rd exit. quick glance over shoulder, right hand lane, pull onto roundabout indicating. Just before my junction indicate off, quick look over my left shoulder. pull over and exit roundabout. If you don't have time to do this (a lot of people don't bother it's personal choice) you're going to fast.

[Lerm]

Thank you!

Really helpful and its cleared this up for me. I have a day training tomorrow and will again check with the instructors when I'm riding that I'm doing the correct observations!

[OhJay]

Just before my junction indicate off, quick look over my left shoulder. pull over and exit roundabout. If you don't have time to do this (a lot of people don't bother it's personal choice) you're going to fast.

Look before you change your indicator in case there is anyone there and you have to change your mind and go round again.

If you've changed your indicator the person waiting to join at that exit might see it and go right in front of you just as you've decided to go round again and/or looking the other way

[Six30]

It's not a silly question

Generally look over the shoulder of the direction you are wanting to go.