Topic 9
Observation & manoeuvres

First, where to look. Beginners look too close in front of the car, which makes steering jerky and hazards appear late. The lesson works with a systematic scan of the surroundings: far ahead, then the interior mirror, then the door mirror, then far ahead again — and whenever you leave your lane, the shoulder check on top, because that is what covers the blind spot.

The second part is the fixed sequence of each manoeuvre. For turning it runs: mirror, indicate, position, adjust speed, shoulder check, turn. Turning left adds the priority of oncoming traffic; turning right adds cycle traffic on your own right-hand side. Pedestrians crossing the road you are turning into have priority — the rule most often forgotten in city traffic.

The third part is overtaking and changing lanes. You learn when overtaking is forbidden, why it does not work on a rural road without a clear view of the whole manoeuvre, and how the zip merge works: not early and apologetically, but at the very end of the lane that is closing, alternately. Reversing and turning round belong here too, including the rule that both are forbidden on motorways and Kraftfahrstraßen.

• Scan: far ahead, interior mirror, door mirror
• Mirror, indicate, position, shoulder check
• Zip merge at the end of the lane, not before
• Turning round and reversing, and where they are banned

The slip roads onto the A46 and the A52 are where merging first gets serious: the acceleration lane is for accelerating, not for hesitating. Arriving there at fifty means finding no gap and forcing the flowing traffic to brake. The Rheinkniebrücke follows immediately with the next building block — changing lanes in dense traffic, with crosswind and no hard shoulder.

In town it is the one-way streets in Flingern and the loading bays on the Kö that make the topic tangible. Cars pulling out of parking spaces, delivery vans double-parked and cyclists threading between the two turn every lane change into an exercise in shoulder checks. Those are exactly the streets we drive with you before the test.

The third building block is the roundabout, which has an indicator rule of its own: you do not indicate on the way in, but you do on the way out. Traffic already in the roundabout has priority over traffic entering it, wherever the usual pair of signs — give way plus roundabout — is in place. In Düsseldorf you meet them mainly at the edge of the residential quarters and at the entrances to the surrounding towns, and there the second half of the job arrives: cyclists riding round with you, who are regularly overlooked at the exit.

In the theory test you recognise these questions by their situation pictures: a junction with oncoming traffic, a rural road with a tractor, a lane that is ending. You are asked for the right order, or for what you do first. The most common mistake is putting the indicator before the look.

In the practical test topic 9 is the material most fault points are made of. A missing or merely suggested shoulder check, positioning too late, indicating without the follow-up check — the examiner sees all of it immediately. On top come the set manoeuvres: reversing around a corner, parking in a space, and braking with the greatest possible deceleration.

• Make the shoulder check visible, do not hint at it
• Indicate after looking, not before
• Position early and adjust your speed
• Have the set manoeuvres solid