The roundabout is where most mistakes on the Model Town Board are made. NTSA's learner handbook calls it a meeting point where more than two roads meet, there to let vehicles go their different ways without blocking or hitting each other. These are its rules.
Which lane to be in
Choose your lane before the continuous lines, because you may not change lanes once you reach them, or on the roundabout. Each lane has its own options, counted in the handbook's two codes: 2124 on the four-lane road and 215 on the three-lane road. In short, lane 1 turns left or goes straight, lane 2 goes straight only, and the innermost lane is the one for turning right and coming back.
Model Town Board lane options has every option for both roads, with a picture of each car's line.
On the roundabout
You keep left in Kenya, so you go round clockwise. Give way to traffic already on the roundabout, which comes from your right. The lanes keep their numbers: lane 1 is the outer lane and lane 4 is the one beside the island.
The handbook lists five things you must not do on the roundabout:
- stop
- change lanes
- park
- overtake
- wait
The three parts of the roundabout
The handbook divides the roundabout into three parts:
- The traffic island, the green part in the middle, which controls how vehicles move round it.
- The innermost lane, lane 4. It is the only lane that may make a full circle (360°) from the four-lane road, and the only one that may go as far as 270° from the three-lane road.
- The space, lanes 1, 2 and 3. Cars in these lanes may not make a full circle: they take their exit the first time they reach it.
Leaving the roundabout
Leave in the lane you came round in, and signal left as you go. Where the road you leave by has fewer lanes, take its innermost lane. Change lanes only further on, where the lines are broken.
The common mistakes
The handbook names four:
- Approaching in the wrong lane.
- Leaving in the wrong lane.
- Changing lanes on the roundabout.
- Misreading the traffic lights, where a roundabout has them. Our board has none.
What to ask your driving school
- Who gives way. We teach giving way to traffic already on the roundabout, which comes from your right. The handbook's Unit 3 does not say it, so ask your instructor how your test centre wants it done.
- Lane 4 and full circles. The lane options page lists what to ask about lane 4 going straight and where a full circle ends.
- Their own board. Boards are not all painted the same, so have your school walk you round theirs.
Practise it
The roundabout unit of the Model Town Board simulator teaches the roundabout rules, shows each turn driven a step at a time, and then gives you seven roundabout tasks to drive yourself, from the dual carriageway and the three-lane road. It stops you when you take a turn your lane does not allow, change lanes on the roundabout or leave in the wrong lane, and it tells you which lane to use. It is free, with no signup.
More on the Model Town Board
- The Model Town Board levelsThe board, the lanes and the rules first. Then you drive.
- Model Town Board diagram, labelledEvery road, lane, line and bay on the board, named.
- Model Town Board lane options: 2124 and 2152124 and 215: which lane may take which turn.
- Model Town Board questions and answers (60+)Lanes, the roundabout, routes and parking, each with its rule.
- Model Town Board rulesThe route rules, lane numbers, lines, kerbs, stop and give way.
- Model Town Board parking: angle and flushAngle and flush parking, and when to use the parking area.
Sources
- Kenya Learner Driver Handbook, compiled by NTSA, 2016, Unit 3: Model Town, p. 11. We could not find it on NTSA's own site, so this copy is hosted by a driving school. Ask your school whether your test centre still follows it.