To ensure that the traffic on the street stays in control and vehicles do not swerve from a designated area, there are white markings on the road to guide the drivers where they need to drive. These white markings are known as lanes. When drivers switch from one lane to the other, they need to take multiple factors into consideration and have to abide by the lane discipline. The failure to do so not only increases the chances of collisions and accidents but also counts as a traffic violation.
In this guide, we take a look at lane discipline, how you can change lanes safely while driving and the penalty of failing to abide by the lane discipline.
Tips to Change Lanes Safely While Driving
One of the dangerous things to avoid while driving is making an unsafe lane change. Before you plan to switch lanes, you need to know if merging lanes is allowed on that type of the lane. If the lanes are dotted lines, you can use the following tips to change lanes safely while driving. However, if the lane is a solid white line, it is not permitted to change the lane.
In this section, we discuss the safe techniques of changing lanes while driving.
Avoid Lane Cutting When Changing Lanes While Driving
To begin with, when changing lanes, it is important that you turn on the indicator and signal it to the surrounding cars to let their drivers know that you want to change lanes. This makes them aware that they need to change the speed of their car accordingly so that their car doesn’t end up colliding into your car once you switch into their lane.
As a general rule, it is recommended that you turn on the indicator approximately 30 meters before you drift from the lane so the drivers in the surrounding cars can adjust their speed accordingly. Many cars are equipped with a lane change sensor like lane departure warning system (a lane change warning system) which alerts the driver if they abruptly change the lane without signaling in that direction.
Adjusting Your Car’s Speed When Changing Lanes While Driving
Whether you need to accelerate or decelerate when you change lanes depends upon the flow of traffic in your lane and the lane you are about to switch to. The key is that you have to catch up to the speed of the lane that you move into. If the lane you want to switch to has fast-flowing traffic, you need to accelerate after moving to that lane. Otherwise, other cars can hit your vehicle from behind. It is also important that you change lanes only when you have found a large enough gap so that you can maintain the safe following distance. Make sure that you avoid tailgating in order to avoid colliding into another car.
Check the Mirrors and Blind Spots When Changing Lanes While Driving
Before changing lanes, you should check your left, right and rear mirrors to take traffic from all the directions into consideration. You need to ensure that you adjust car mirrors for maximum visibility. It is also important to take a look at your vehicle’s blind spot because there are some spots that are not visible through these car mirrors. You can check the blind spot by looking about 45 degrees above your shoulder which can enable you to see the traffic approaching that you couldn’t see in your mirrors.
Lane Discipline Violation in UAE
Failing to abide by the lane discipline like lane cutting account for many road accidents in the UAE and even other parts of the world. The RTA driving test checklist also includes assessing whether the driver understands lane violations and can safely change lanes. Drivers who are caught violating the lane changing rules in UAE face a penalty fine of AED 400.
Frequently Answered Questions (FAQs)
How to Change Lanes for Drivers Test?
Driver’s ability to safely change lanes while driving is assessed when driver takes a driving test. You need to make sure that you turn on the signal before switching the lanes, abide by the safe following distance and avoid abrupt changing of lanes when changing lanes while driving. You also need to adjust mirrors for maximum visibility, check front, side and rear mirrors and also check the blind spots to see any car that you could not view in the car mirrors.
Can You Change Lanes on a Solid White Line?
If the lane is a solid white line instead of dotted one, it is not recommended to change the lanes.
This concludes our guide about how to safely change lanes. If your car has been severely damaged from a collision whilst switching the lanes, you might be interested in browsing through this diverse collection of used cars for sale in the UAE at reasonable rates. For more information related to automobiles and the automotive industry, stay tuned to UAE’s leading auto blog.
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