“Right Turns on Residential Streets” Structured Practice 

How to Drive a Car: Right Turns on Residential Streets:

Turns and intersections are where a lot of mishaps occur.  Learning how to drive a car includes learning how to avoid mishaps at turns.  You need to know the rules and the procedures for making a turn.  A residential street is a good place to learn because there is less traffic, the posted speed is lower and their are usually stop signs or traffic lights.

A right hand turn is the easiest turn when you are learning how to drive a car.  Keep in mind any turn made incorrectly could cause an accident.  If possible practice in an open parking lot.  Set-up an imaginary corner with an imaginary stop sign so you can practice signalling, stopping, checking if all is clear and then executing the turn in complete safety.  Also practice doing the same turn but without a stop sign.   Practice what to do if  you have yield sign or a 4 way stop.  Even practice doing the turn without stopping.

How to Drive a Car: Traffic Lights

 You know that a red light means ‘stop’, and a green one means ‘go.’  So dealing with stoplights should be easy, but people who don’t always obey the lights make it more difficult.    A distracted driver may miss the changing red light.  Another driver in a hurry may speed up to get through the yellow one.   And green may mean you have the right-of way but that will be little consolation if you cross paths with those other two guys!
 

‘Stale’ Yellow Lights

Yellow traffic lights caution drivers that the light is about to turn red.  As each driver approaches a yellow light, they need to make a decision whether or not they can stop safely or they should continue through the intersection.  In order to make a good decision, you need to know how much time you have.  A good indicator is, ‘how long has the light been yellow?’ If the light just turned yellow as you reached the intersection – it’s ‘fresh’ so you have plenty of time.  If it’s already ‘stale’ (it’s been yellow for a while), you should stop.  So when you’re scanning ahead, make sure you’re aware of the traffic lights ahead of you.  You need to be able to determine which ones are fresh and which ones are stale.