Is it or is it not legal to reverse out into a main road ? If it is not, anyone got a quote or link to chapter and verse please ? Cheers.
Question
Is it illegal to reverse a car onto a main road from a minor road?Answer
It is not illegal to reverse into a main road but it is not advisable. This is for safety reasons. The main road is likely to be very busy and there will be an increased chance of a collision due to the presence of more cars on the road. If an accident occurred due to you reversing onto a main road from a minor road then there may be the possibility of you being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.
I is completely against all the unwritten rules to get caught.
So if you do get caught, do a runner.
i havn’t got a clue really. 
The Highway Code
201
Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.
benny the badger:
The Highway Code201
Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.
It is true that the Highway Code says that, but the Highway Code is not the law, it is not in itself illegal to reverse onto a main road although you could be prosecuted for driving without due care if an accident occurred while you were doing it.
get a banksman on the job
or anyone in hi vis
sometimes you have no choice when delivering to customers in a wagon, one particular call we do you used to have to reverse back onto a dual carriageway cause it was to busy to shunt and reverse, drivers mate stopped traffic by lying in the road in his hi-viz so was o.k.
If i’m on my own i just put lights hazards, fog lights and just reveser out very very slowly, cars etc normally see you and figure out what your doing. never had a problem yet with my way of doing it. just dont rush it.
I seem to spend half my life reversing onto main roads, but that’s Travis Perkins’ fault, not mine.
In the eighties we used to have a job delivering tarmac to Mather and Ellis at Trafford Park, they were early morning tips (around 7.am) mostly with 4 and 6 wheelers but occasionally they wanted an eight legger. We had to drive into the yard and reverse back into a bay, the fun came when you had to get out again as a copper used to sometimes wait outside ready to book you if you reversed out! It took about a dozen shunts to turn the ■■■■ thing around in the cramped yard, just to keep on the right side of the law and he would give a smile when you drove out correctly, dripping with sweat!!
Pete.
I always thought that it depended on the speed limit of the main road. If the limit was over 40 mph, then you couldn’t reverse onto it. But then most laws are ignored these days, so I guess that one’s gone too. Like the solid white line at traffic lights. Back when I took my test (car) you would fail if you stopped over the line or more than 3 feet back from it. Seeing most drivers these days, they don’t seem aware there is a line at all 
One interesting observation I made was that if you see a car stopped more than 3 or 4 feet from the back of the one in front at a junction, it’s 99% certain that that’s the gap they leave on the motorway too. They don’t teach people to pull up behind traffic any more, it’s always so that they can see the tyres touching the road. Consequently, only half the traffic ever gets over the lights in one go !
There is NO LAW that prevents anyone from reversing into a main road from a side road.
HOW it is done is the LEGAL issue.
If it is deemed that it is not done SAFELY then the driver leaves themselves wide open to be prosecuted for UNDUE CARE AND ATTENTION or, in the worst of cases, DANGEROUS DRIVING.
If a driver feels that it is unsafe to do so but has no choice then GET HELP - on occasion that could mean phoning the cops for assistance.
i just go for it, slowly mind, when cars have stopped whizzing past you, youre probably blocking traffic, so finish the maneouvre!
If i’m on my own i just put lights hazards, fog lights and just reveser out very very slowly, cars etc normally see you and figure out what your doing. never had a problem yet with my way of doing it. just dont rush it.
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don’t kid ya self i did that 12 months ago car never saw me ran straight in to me caught my corner of trailer and still going through insurance as they saying shouldn’t of been backing out full stop on my own car was totally wrote off i was hardly moving at time
windrush:
In the eighties we used to have a job delivering tarmac to Mather and Ellis at Trafford Park, they were early morning tips (around 7.am) mostly with 4 and 6 wheelers but occasionally they wanted an eight legger. We had to drive into the yard and reverse back into a bay, the fun came when you had to get out again as a copper used to sometimes wait outside ready to book you if you reversed out! It took about a dozen shunts to turn the ■■■■ thing around in the cramped yard, just to keep on the right side of the law and he would give a smile when you drove out correctly, dripping with sweat!!Pete.
I’d have asked him to stop the traffic for me and guide me out seeing as he was stood there doing nothing.
You are legally allowed to reverse onto a main road as long as you’ve got your beacons on. [Tipper driver handbook, page 1 
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