How to Judge a Safe Gap When Turning Right & Left

Determining a safe gap is one of the essential skills that a driver must learn to drive safely and NOT crash!

TIME TO TURN

In the city, a driver requires a gap of 5 - 10 seconds; on highways a driver requires 10 - 20 seconds.

FACTORS DETERMINING GAP

There are many factors that determine the size of the gap required to turn safely:

• speed of traffic flow;
• lines of sight (how far can you see down the road);
• driver's ability and driving experience;
• acceleration of your vehicle;
• geography (are you turning uphill or downhill);
• size of your vehicle (the larger your vehicle, the more time you require)

WORK WITH AN EXPERIENCED DRIVER

It is recommended that you work with an experienced driver or a driving instructor to learn how to judge gap correctly. It is difficult to provide practical application in a video due to the many variables required to learn this skill.

Determining a safe gap is a right-brain activity. When determining gap, you are determining spatial orientation of objects relative to each other. In other words, you are determining how far other road users are from your vehicle and in relation to other fixed objects. And the distance that other vehicles are away is measured in time - the same as following distance.

EXERCISE

If you are having difficulty determining safe gap, go out to an intersection and pick a fixed object in the distance - a sign, a building, or other road feature. When the vehicle passes the fixed object, start counting or timing the vehicle Determine what vehicles look like in the distance at different time intervals. How big is a vehicle when it's 8 seconds away as opposed to 20 seconds away. This exercise will help you to determine a safe gap into which to turn.

SMALLER IS TOUGHER

Know also that the smaller the vehicle, the more difficult it is to determine gap. And the higher the vehicles are travelling too also makes it more difficult to determine gaps.

RIGHT BRAIN ACTIVITY

Finally, the task of determining spatial relations or figuring out how far a road user is from you is a right-brain activity. The right-brain is unable to accurately determine time, which is a left-brain activity. In the video, I miscalculate time and this underscores the importance of working with an experienced driver or driving instructor to properly learn the skill of determining gap…to turn safely.

Good luck on your road test!
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[timilehinogunlusi]

I got my license last week and your videos were very helpful. Thanks Rick for sharing amazing contents.

[prestocartalkandreviews.]

Judging gap is currently one of my biggest struggles. I’ve been driving since around a July to august. I guess it just takes a lot of practice. I drive with my dad usually and he not the best at helping me. I guess just keep practicing and I’ll get better. For now, I just wait until it’s 100 percent clear. Because the worst that could/has happened then is cars get mad and honk.

[joelortiz]

I misjudged the gap on a left hand turn, only reason was because I was not patient and because of the pressure of all of the traffic behind me waiting. I took a turn at the wrong moment and was almost hit by a really big car.

[SainathKanamarlapudi]

Today, I took a right turn by miscalculating the time it takes to reach 60 km/hr from 0 km/hr and luckily the other guy stopped, honked and showed finger when he passed me. I don't know why I did this but I feel guilty and it was a near miss rear collision if other guy didn't press brakes at the right time. I tried accelerating as much as I can but my vehicle didn't pick the speed then. The reason I am writing my experience is please don't do the same mistake I did. TAKE YOUR TIME. Ensure to have safe distance and time as specified in this video while taking turns. Thanks again, Rick for your valuable suggestions and keep up the good work.

[theinquisitor]

I'm from the United States and This was honestly so helpful. I've been driving for over two years, and I feel like I'm decent, but turning left into multiple lanes of traffic from a side road has always been a major fear of mine. You've helped me out tremendously. My highway going thru my town is Farley packed there's really no other way to get anywhere, but the speed limit is about 70 km/h. People in my town are very impatient, and will just pull out in front of multiple lanes of traffic, and I just wait. I'll never risk it. Thank you!

[bobjones-dwyd]

"One side clears, the other has traffic" I really despise when this happens

[LifesBeautifulRide]

Thanks to you my brother and my father I just got my license recently. It takes a village to raise a driver! Thanks Rick!!

[vanessathegreat]

What I like to do is look at the traffic, and look for a sufficient amount of space. I usually be like "OK after this car I can go" if I have doubt I won't go it's better to be safe than sorry

[hungkiet]

Thank you for this tutorial, I sometime get anxious when judging for safe gap.

[Tiffany-wxqc]

I failed my road test because I misjudged the gap. I turned left instead of waiting and the guy in the oncoming car honked at me. I was so nervous I felt like I didn't have enough time to be patient.

[bethclemensen]

I took a Safe Driving refresher course at my local senior center and learned that as people age the eye structure actually changes ... it's harder to recognize the speed of oncoming traffic! That explains why I was being honked at more after turning!
So now I'm more cautious, consciously remember I need to leave more room than I "think", and speed up more quickly; I also realized I had not been blending into traffic, as I tend to drive more slowly these days, so again I consciously try to blend more quickly.
There's a very slight hill to my right (I'm in U.S.,  right-hand driving) that's JUST high enough so oncoming traffic can barely realize there's an intersection ahead and when I'm stopped on my rural road waiting for a clearing in the highway traffic I can't see oncoming traffic at any distance. Many times I've pulled out, no one in sight, and suddenly someone's "in my trunk". I've learned to be especially wary there, speeding up to highway speeds and anxiously watching my rear view mirror. Cars often come over the hill much faster than the posted speed limit and I have to floor it to stay ahead of them safely.

[ethelbarroso]

Rick can you please make a video encouraging new drivers after we have failed our road test please?
Also how to control our self at the beginning of the test when we get so nervios about it.
You are an awesome instructor, I wish you were in my city so I could take one on one lessons from you. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us.

[misslindacjones]

you are the coach i wished i had much earlier. these videos and training are utterly essential. thank you for helping us. its special :)

[scottivlow]

Hi Rick, I got to tell you watching drive training videos is a lot easier than hiring a driving instructor. In Polk County, Florida we only have 3 driving schools that have dual brakes, and it's next to impossible just to get one 90 minute to 2 hour road lesson. They either do stupid courses with road test prep even if you already have a license and the schools are book for 2 months out. They can have a a car sit out front all day and yet still not offer a one 90 to 2 hour course.
So what I am doing about this, watching as many video's as I can and I'll just be renting a vehicle to practice every training technique as I can get on my own.
Also it's like $97.00 If you can get a 90 minute evaluation. Now I just rather spend that money just practicing with a rental instead since I don't own one but I need to practice and I do like driving again.

[ladonnad.steele]

yes I have, it took a while to get it right but I did. If your depth perception is not good you will struggle with this. Give yourself extra time if you have problems with this, better to hold up traffic and be safe than get t-boned and have your neck broke! Stay safe folks!

[Ihatetrack]

Thank you for this Im a new driver, and im having trouble with judging the gaps. Ive just realized i Just have to be extremely patient. Also to be even more patient in the rain and bad weather. I was making a right turn onto a busy road 50 mph and my car was slipping on the road and not going as I hit the gas. If it slipped anymore i wouldnt have been able to make the turn safely.

[ericwillis]

This channel is great! I have learned a lot from these videos. Everyone should watch these.

[wyattandwill]

Great video. I was watching this because I can see it being a problem on the road test and it’s also something I wonder about while driving otherwise because I’m always wondering if I’m holding up the traffic behind me or just being properly safe. This video has helped me be able to know the balance between too much and too little gap — fortunately even before watching this I was leaning towards wanting too much gap as opposed to too little.

[newmanc]

Rather than try to wait for a gap, I just sit there and wait for it to 100 percent clear. I won't go when something is coming, I wait for everything to pass. It is just safer that way.

[wahidaahmad]

Hi Rick! I recently failed my test only because of this one error.I thought I was taking a safe turn but suddenly a car turned from a hidden road ahead.Could you please do a more detailed video on this as I want to take a retest again this month but understand exactly what a safe distance is especially when my vision is blocked with cars parked on both sides.Thank you