Lesson 8: Driving Safely Through Traffic
Rush-hour Dublin. Box junctions, merging, reasonable progress.
View Lesson 8
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EDT Session 9 of 12
Changing Direction at Volume.
Multi-lane roundabouts, right turns across traffic, spiral lanes.
Lesson 9 takes the observation routine from Lesson 3 and puts it under the pressure of Dublin's most confusing junctions.
- 60 minutes
- One learner, one instructor
- RSA-set syllabus
- Logged on MyRoadSafety within ten working days
Around 6 minutes to read.
A Dublin learner drives thirty roundabouts in an EDT circuit.
Ireland uses roundabouts more than most EU countries relative to road length. A single EDT circuit through Dublin can cross thirty of them. Lane choice on approach is the single most-failed element. Follow the paint, not the geometry.
Roundabout faults appear consistently in the top ten on the RSA driving test marking guidelines. Raheny and Finglas test centre routes are particularly roundabout-heavy.
RSA Driving Test Marking Guidelines 2025.
What the lesson covers
8 things you leave with.
Pulled faithfully from the RSA's Lesson 9 syllabus. Each concept is a short, specific beat.
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Multi-lane roundabouts.
Lane choice on approach is dictated by exit. Left lane for first exit. Right lane for exits past twelve o'clock. Straight ahead is usually the left lane unless the paint says otherwise.
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Spiral roundabouts.
Some Dublin roundabouts use spiral lane markings. The paint doesn't follow the circle, and neither should you. Follow the lane.
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Right turns across oncoming traffic.
Judging the gap. Judging the speed. The most common fail at complex T-junctions.
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Filter lanes.
Short dedicated lanes for one direction only. Enter early. Commit.
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Luas line intersections.
Dublin-specific. Look for the rail before crossing. Check twice.
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One-way systems.
City-centre grids in D1 and D2. Lane choice matters because there's no turning round at the end.
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Independent navigation.
The tester gives the direction. The learner plans the route including the lane.
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Cooperation with signal cycles.
Anticipating the green so MSMM lines up with the phase, not against it.
What goes wrong in this hour
The mistakes that come up every time.
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Wrong lane on the roundabout approach.
Straddling two lanes. Changing lane once you're in the roundabout, which is a specific fail fault.
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Right turn through too small a gap.
Nerves force the commit. The tester sees the gap was insufficient. Major fault.
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Following the geometry, not the paint.
Spiral roundabouts catch the driver who trusts their eyes instead of the lane marking.
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Hesitating after the green.
Waiting too long. The progress marks bleed away.
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Turning against a one-way arrow.
Automatic fail on the test and dangerous in real life.
Practice
Quiz 1. Roundabout lane picker.
Told the exit. Pick the lane. Five rounds, one tap each.
Roundabout lane-picker quiz. Coming in the next release.
The spiral round catches most learners. The paint tells you where to be. The geometry of the circle tells you nothing. Trust the paint.
The hour, walked through
How Lesson 9 runs.
The route is roundabout-heavy by design. Raheny-area mini-roundabouts. Coolock's multi-lane exits. Larger orbital roundabouts that a learner can legally drive. Each roundabout is driven, debriefed at the next safe stop, and then redriven on the way back.
Right turns across oncoming traffic come next, drilled on quiet junctions first and then on progressively busier ones. At the quiet ones the call is made for the learner. At the busier ones it isn't. The instructor refuses to call the gap and lets the learner read it, stepping in only if the situation turns unsafe.
The last fifteen minutes move to a one-way system in D1 or D2 with short navigation prompts. "Take the next left, then the second right." The learner plans the lane, signals, and commits. The logbook is stamped at the end of the route with feedback that names the specific roundabout where the approach lane was wrong, and the specific right turn where the gap was misread.
Between this lesson and the next
What to practise with your Sponsor.
- Drive a route with five roundabouts of different sizes. Practise the exit lane. Name the exit before the approach.
- Ten right turns across traffic at staffed junctions. Count them. Ten honest ones.
- One-way street navigation in a quiet city area. A small grid, a few blocks. Plan each turn out loud.
- Read the Rules of the Road on roundabouts, one-way streets, and road markings. The paint chapter in particular. Read it twice.
Practice
Quiz 2. Gap judgement timer.
Right turn across traffic. Tap when you'd commit.
Gap-judgement timer. Coming in the next release.
Most learners over-commit by half a second. At 60 km/h that's eight metres of road the oncoming car eats while you cross.
Pairs with the theory test
What this lesson overlaps with on paper.
Practice
Quiz 3. One-way route planner.
Point A. Point B. Plan a route using only the legal directions.
One-way route planner. Coming in the next release.
The one-way grid is the reason the navigation prompt on the test exists. Hearing "take the next right" doesn't help you if the next right is the wrong way.
Around Lesson 9
Keep going.
All twelve EDT lessons
- 01 Car Controls and Safety Checks
- 02 Correct Positioning
- 03 Changing Direction
- 04 Progression Management
- 05 Positioning, More Complex Situations
- 06 Anticipation and Reaction
- 07 Sharing the Road
- 08 Driving Safely Through Traffic
- 09 Changing Direction at Volume
- 10 Speed Management
- 11 Driving Calmly
- 12 Night Driving
Book it
Ready for this one?
Lesson 9 sits in the final block. It opens up once Lessons 2 to 8 are logged on the RSA system. If you're up to Lesson 9, the end is closer than the start. If you haven't begun, Lesson 1 is where you start.
Dublin pickup, D1 to D18. Dual controls. Logbook stamped and uploaded within ten working days.