Viral driving video showing 'slingshotting' traffic hack seriously divides opinion

A viral driving video has split opinion online after it revealed a simple hack to avoid sitting in traffic for no reason.

Millions of people in the UK take to the road every day, but often, it's been many years since they've done their theory test or learned the rules of the road. Many are also being caught out by a little-known rule which could land drivers with a hefty £5000 fine.

Considering driving lessons are usually quite expensive, people are taking different routes (if you'll pardon the pun) these days, with one 17-year-old managing to pass his test first time after learning how to drive on YouTube. God bless the internet.

One of the trickiest things about learning to drive however, is dealing with some people on the road who simply don't respect the rules at all, and do things that can be considered rude or even downright dangerous.

However, it seems as if the lad in a viral video might well have just hacked the system without breaking any rules at all, as he showed off his 'slingshotting' technique at a busy roundabout.

Traffic at roundabouts could soon be a thing of the past (Getty Stock)

Now, we Brits are known for our love of queues, but the last thing you want is to be sat in traffic not moving, and this particular driver wasn't about to let a long line of cars stop him from getting where he needed to be.

With around 15 or 20 cars ahead of him in the left lane approaching the roundabout, where the driver wants to turn left as well, he decides to approach in the right hand lane, which by comparison is completely empty.

He quickly enters the roundabout and simply does a full circle before manoeuvering himself back into the left-hand lane, signalling left, and exiting the roundabout at the first exit, where all the cars ahead of him were also seemingly hoping to head.

After the video was shared on Reddit, plenty took issue with the driver's approach, but nearly everyone admitted that the technique wasn't illegal and was just a smart time-saving method.

One person commented: "I've been doing this for years, never understood why so many others just wait in line. The roundabout has a whole second lane of capacity totally unused, why not use it?"

Another said: "Work smarter not faster. If someone wants to get past everyone and instead of using aggressive driving uses smart (if not cheeky) driving, I'm all for it."

However, one person pointed out that massive problems could ensue if everyone uses this tactic.

They wrote: "It would potentially cause massive problems if everyone did it. Assuming the exit couldn't take twice the current traffic and people started queuing around the roundabout, it just takes one d***head blocking the roundabout when unable to exit and it could be chaos."

So, while there was some dispute as to whether it could constitute misuse of the lanes, the general consensus is that this is completely legal, even if you do get some dirty looks from other drivers while doing it.