Turning in the road
In driving unarticulated wheeled vehicles with reversible propulsion systems, turning in the road is a category of maneuvers, each reversing a vehicle's direction of travel along a road, with neither the use of any intersections nor leaving the right-of-way.
A U-turn is the simplest such maneuver (as it involves no reversal of the drive train), and the fastest that does not depend on tires skidding sidewise as in a bootlegger turn. However, it is often infeasible, by requiring a roadway width equal to or greater than the width of the vehicle plus the diameter of its turning circle; that requirement tends to amount to around a handful of traffic lanes.
For most consumer-style passenger vehicles, a 3-point turn (or K-turn or Y-turn) is feasible on most roads.
An officially endorsed[by whom?] three-point-turn procedure consists of
- pulling to one side of the road,
- turning the front wheels toward the far side as fully as feasible, and
- proceeding to within a few feet from the opposite curb;
- turning the front wheels in the opposite direction as fully as feasible,
- reversing the drive train to its backward-travel mode, and
- backing toward the curb on the original side of the road until the rear wheels are close to that curb;
- turning the front wheels back toward their center (straight-travel) adjustment,
- reversing the drive train back to its forward-travel mode, and
- proceeding forward on the appropriate side of the road.[citation needed]
A reverse 3-point turn can be more convenient on some roads due their narrowness;[citation needed] it differs first by turning toward the far curb while backing (instead of while driving forward), and later by driving forward toward the original curb (instead of back toward it).
A roadway too narrow for a vehicle's combination of width, length, and turning circle may make a 3-point turn impossible -- or a driver's failure to turn the front wheels far enough or drive close enough to one or more curbs may result inability to drive away as the last step. In such cases extending the process into a "5-point turn" (or, via further extension, still higher "point"-counts) is likely to accomplish the goal. Such an extension amounts to another set of turning, shifting, and backing to the original curb, followed by another set of turning, shifting, proceeding forward to its opposite curb.
