Positioning Within Your Lane

The default rule: stay in the middle of your lane. That's not a suggestion — it's the position that gives you the maximum safety margin on both sides: from oncoming traffic on your right, and from the road edge, pedestrians, or parked vehicles on your left.

But "always dead centre" isn't correct in every situation. Three adjustments matter:

1. Meeting a wide oncoming vehicle — a loaded lorry, a bus, a matatu taking more than its share of the lane: move toward the left of your lane to maximise the gap. But don't do it on autopilot — check your left side first. Moving left puts you closer to pedestrians, cyclists, potholes, or parked vehicles, so the adjustment is a judgment call, not a reflex.

2. Good visibility ahead, poor visibility to the sides — a stretch flanked by dense hedges, matatu stalls, or a blind driveway: you can move toward the right of your lane (closer to the centre line) for a better forward sightline past the obstruction. Only if there's no reasonable chance of oncoming traffic — never approaching a bend you can't see around, since you'd be moving into exactly the space an oncoming vehicle would occupy.

3. A genuine blind bend — where both oncoming traffic and roadside hazards could be hidden: slow down and stay firmly in the middle. This is the one situation where you don't lean either way — you reduce speed instead, because you don't have enough information to justify moving

Notice the shape of all three rules: position buys margin, and you spend your margin on whichever side the hazard is. When you can't tell where the hazard is, you don't spend it at all — you buy time with speed instead.