MSPSL, and the judgement calls that separate a smooth turn from a hesitant one
Every manoeuvre earlier in this series happens occasionally, a handful of times in a driving test, a handful of times in a normal week of driving. Turning right and left happens dozens of times an hour. That frequency is exactly why it deserves careful teaching rather than less, a habit formed badly here gets an enormous amount of practice before anyone notices it’s wrong.
The routine is MSPSL, Mirrors, Signal, Position, Speed, Look.
Turning Left
Mirrors first, rear view then left, checking the speed and position of anything behind, particularly anything that might be tempted to overtake on the left as you slow down, a cyclist or motorcyclist most of all. Signal in good time, neither so early that someone assumes you’re pulling into a driveway, nor so late that the signal stops being useful information for anyone else.
Take up your position, holding your normal line about a metre from the kerb, and resist the temptation to swing out right before the turn, it buys you nothing and confuses following traffic about your intentions. Bring your speed down progressively, off the gas, brake, and select the gear suited to the corner, second is right for most turns, first only for something sharp or busy. Aim to have your speed at its lowest a car length or so before the point of turn, where your left mirror lines up with the apex of the corner you’re turning into, so you can come off the brake and let the car’s own momentum carry it round rather than fighting the wheel and the pedals at the same time.
The look, the final part of MSPSL, is effective observation applied to a moving situation rather than a stationary one. Check the left mirror again for anything you might have missed, look into the new road for pedestrians already crossing, who have priority, and assess the severity of the corner so you know how much steering you’ll actually need. If anything changes your read of it, a cyclist you hadn’t accounted for, a pedestrian stepping off, you simply don’t turn.
Turning Right
The same routine, mirrored, with one added complication: judging when it’s safe to cross the path of anyone coming towards you. Mirrors, then signal right in good time, then position about 30 centimetres left of the centre line if the road allows it, leaving room for anyone to pass on your left, or your normal position if it doesn’t.
Speed comes down the same way as for a left turn, but your look now has to cover both directions, into the new road for pedestrians and obstructions, and back out along the road you’re crossing for anything approaching that your turn would affect. If you’re not sure whether you have time, picture a pedestrian crossing the same gap on foot. If they could do it without anyone needing to slow down, you probably have enough time to drive it. If in doubt, stop and wait for a clearer gap.
Keep checking your offside mirror throughout, not just at the start. Slowing down to turn right makes you a more likely target for a following vehicle trying to overtake on your right at exactly the wrong moment. And once you’re positioned and waiting for a gap, your own car may be blocking the view of anyone trying to emerge from a junction nearby, on the opposite side of the road or close behind you, who can no longer see past you to know it’s safe to come out. The offside mirror catches the first risk. Awareness that you might be creating the second is just as important, and isn’t something a mirror will ever show you.
Right Corner Cut
Steer too early and you’ll cut across the centre of the road you’re turning into before you’re actually level with it, a genuine danger to anything coming the other way. Steer too late and you risk mounting the far kerb, a danger to anyone standing near it. The correct moment sits between the two, close enough to keep clear of both.
Completing the Turn
The turn isn’t finished the moment the wheels are straight, whichever direction you’ve come from. Check your mirrors again before you accelerate, not after. Anything that followed you round the corner, a cyclist who was tucked in behind, a car that turned in right after you, needs accounting for before you commit to picking up speed, and so does anyone already further down the new road that you haven’t had a proper look at yet.
Why This Matters for Teaching
Because this routine repeats so often, pupils tend to settle into it faster than the manoeuvres earlier in this series, which can be deceptive. Fluent isn’t the same as good. A pupil can develop a smooth-looking MSPSL that skips the judgement entirely, signalling and positioning correctly while barely registering what the look phase actually found. Ask pupils to narrate what they saw during the look, not just that they looked, particularly on a limited-visibility turn where the honest answer is sometimes “not enough yet.”
Next in the series: T-Junctions and Crossroads, covering priority, closed junctions, and the judgement calls specific to crossroads with no working signals.
Leave a Reply