First lets look at the common objection.
Is it legal? The highway code states
“Rule 248
You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space”
Ok so I’ve heard the argument that you’re not parking you’re waiting”
Well the Highway code as I’ve mentioned before is only a summary – a quick reference guide.
The actual law is: the Road Vehicles Construction and Use Regulations, Section 101
101.—(1) Save as provided in paragraph (2) no person shall, except with the permission of a police officer in a uniform, cause or permit any motor vehicle to stand on a road at any time between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise unless the near side of the vehicle is as close as may be to the edge of the carriageway”
The exemptions in paragraph 2 aren’t relevant for the driving test purposes.
Given my recent article on liabilities by ADI’s we can see a Driving Examiner would also be liable to prosecution under the ’cause or permit’ clause.
I did hear some nonsense about you having to turn off headlights and leave side-lights on doing the manoeuvre.
But that’s rubbish. It’s illegal. It always has been.
Outside of the hours of darkness its not illegal just not recommended.
So is this a radical new manoeuvre?
For the full answer lets take a look at the 1969 edition of Driving
Does anything look familiar about the right reverse exercise?
To make it clearer:
Yes, that’s right – its s simpler version of the right reverse, because you don’t have reverse around the corner, and then move off afterwards and cross over to the off-side of the road. The exercise that’s been in the syllabus all along.
Of course some Instructors who only teach to pass a test don’t cover it, because unless you turn up in a van it’s not an exercise that comes up on test, and naturally no-one outside of a driving test has ever needed to reverse a vehicle to the right into a driveway or parking space etc………..