Trowbridge Roundabouts
One of the biggest challenges for those taking their driving test in Trowbridge is lane discipline on the town’s roundabouts.
Longfield Roundabout
Longfield roundabout (the one by the Odeon) poses the biggest challenge, particularly since the chances of avoiding it on your driving test are next to none. The driving test centre is located in Longfield Community Centre. Consequently, you are likely to either start your test or end your test via the roundabout. Take a look at the ariel views below to see the best path to take when leaving or returning to the driving test centre.
Lane Discipline Leaving Test Centre
Lane Discipline Returning to Test Centre
Asda Roundabout
Outside Asda, there are two mini-roundabouts fairly close to each other. This can be problematic when following the audio narrative from a sat nav. If you are heading from the test centre, the audio does not tell you about the second roundabout until it’s too late to select the correct lane. Therefore as you are approaching the first roundabout, you should look at the sat nav map to see which way you will be directed at the second roundabout. If you do this, then you can get in the correct lane in plenty of time (preferably before the pedestrian crossing).
Church Roundabout
This roundabout doesn’t have a name, but it has Holy Trinity Church in the middle of it, so I will call it “Church Roundabout”. Strictly speaking, it’s not a roundabout. There are no roundabout signs and the sat nav will not refer to it like a roundabout. However, it is better to think of it as such when you are trying to navigate it.
If you are following a sat nav, then I recommend that you ignore the audio narrative and focus on the map view for your directions. Since the sat nav does not treat it like a roundabout, the audio narrative tries to direct you through each bend, which can be confusing.
Lane Discipline Leaving Trowbridge Town Centre
Lane Discipline Returning to Trowbridge Town Centre
Dash Cam Clips of Correct Lane Position to and from Test Centre
GPS Routes for Leaving and Returning to Test Centre
I always like to get my students familiar with following GPS instructions as they traverse Longfield Roundabout since that is the most likely way they will start their driving test from Trowbridge Test Centre. The small routes below will let you gain familiarity yourself if you have access to a car with a TomTom or other GPS device.
The “Download All Routes” Button allows you to download a gpx file containing all eight routes. You simply need to upload that file to your GPS device to have all routes available on your device. If you have a TomTom and MyDrive installed on your phone, then you can use the button below each route to open that route in MyDrive. From there, you can synchronise it with your TomTom device.