[Music] [Music] we will often need to change lanes whilst driving for example when passing parked cars or when overtaking to do this safely we will need to judge the speed and position of other traffic as well as keeping good control of our car [Music] this can be more difficult when driving in heavy traffic or unfamiliar roads as we will have less time to make a safe decision this video will show how we make sure our lane changes are always safe and what we do if we get stuck in the wrong lane as always if you have any questions about this video please comment below and we will do our best to reply [Music] [Applause] [Music] to ensure we complete a lane change safely we should use the msm routine which stands for mirror signal maneuver if we always use this routine when making decisions we should stay safe here we are on a dual carriageway and would like to overtake the lorry in front so we'll need to change our road position into the right lane however we can only do this if it can be completed without forcing other drivers to break or steer to avoid us we need to change lanes to the right we check our center and right mirrors for any danger we must look in each mirror for long enough that we can judge the speed and position of other vehicles so a quick glance won't always be enough if there is traffic nearby if there is a continuous stream of traffic or a speeding car approaching quickly we must be patient and must wait for a safer whilst waiting we should not signal as another driver might think we are about to steer right and break to avoid us [Music] once we are sure it's safe to change lanes the best way to inform others of our intention is to use our indicators we should always try to indicate for a few seconds before we actually change lanes as this will give other drivers time to understand what we are about to do the more predictable we are to others the less chance there will be of an accident but surprise or mislead others and it will put us in danger we recommend indicating even if we don't think there is anyone near us just in case we haven't spotted someone in our blind spot over our shoulder so if they spot our indicator flashing they have a chance to move before we actually change lanes now we are ready to actually change lanes we should steer our car smoothly to the other lane unless it's an emergency we should never swerve our car as it might surprise others or even lose control of the car once the lane change has been completed we will usually need to manually cancel the indicator as we probably haven't used enough steering angle for it to cancel automatically if we leave the indicator on after the lane change we could mislead other traffic especially if there are other junctions nearby once we have completed our overtake we need to change lanes again to the left so we use the msm routine once more before we signal to commit to the maneuver we recommend making a quick shoulder check just in case there is any danger that isn't in our mirrors watch the white car approaching behind us we can see it in our right side mirror then the car disappears into the blind spot and we can't see it in either our mirror or side window it's over 10 seconds before we finally see it again to our right imagine steering into the right lane with this car beside us it would almost certainly result in a crash this is why we should always do a shoulder check so that we know it's definitely safe before changing lanes when driving on dual carriageways we will often need to overtake slower vehicles once we have spotted the slower vehicle we should first consider whether it is worth overtaking if we are fairly near our planned exit it might not be worth bothering with the overtake or we might get stuck in the overtaking lane and miss our exit altogether in this case we do want to overtake the lorry so we check our mirrors to see if it is safe to move into the other lane we spot a safe gap behind the black car and after a quick glance over our right shoulder we signal and then smoothly steer into lane two now we are in the overtaking lane we increase our speed and drive past the lorry and only after we can see the lorry in our center mirror we signal left and steer back into lane one so we have used the msm routine twice here wants to move right and then again to change back to the left lane we are approaching a large roundabout and we would like to turn right third exit when we reach the second exit we will need to check it's safe to move to the outer lane before taking our exit we will follow the same msm routine as usual to make sure the outer lane is clear once we have entered the roundabout we get up to speed then check our left mirrors and over our left shoulder we can see that there is no danger so we indicate left and move to the outer lane if we do see a vehicle alongside us then we must stay in our current lane if we break sharply or try to change lanes abruptly this could cause a collision instead we continue in our current lane around the roundabout until there is space to change lanes or complete another circuit to try again next time round there are many other situations that will require us to change lanes but if we always follow the msm routine then we should stay safe we might need to change lanes before a junction or drive around a parked car but the routine is always the same we try to plan ahead as far as possible to give ourselves plenty of time but if we are unable to safely change lanes for some reason then we must continue on our current path changing lanes quickly or without proper observation is dangerous but a short detour before continuing our route is no problem [Music] so remember to check your mirrors for nearby vehicles do a shoulder check of your blind spot [Music] signal to inform other drivers and change lanes smoothly [Music] if you found this video interesting then please click our logo to subscribe to our channel and click the bell to be notified of 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