i believe the lights on them tell which opening you go too, green the opening for the entrance and red for the exit i believe.

Open up your nav map. You'll see the trade lanes represented by a line stream. The top ring flows in the direction of the stream, and the bottom ring flows against the direction of the stream.

Another way, without memorizing or using the nav map, is to "dock" at greater than 2 km while you are still at high speed/cruise. Your ship will move towards the correct ring. Go to "free flight" and dock again when desired.

Makes one wonder why lanes aren't aligned horizontally...then they could have all the Brits going down the wrong side of the road, just like in real life... j/k

Actually, its the Yanks that are going down the wrong way.
Japan, Great Britain/United Kingdom whichever you prefer, and a bunch of European countries drive down one way, and the Yanks drive the other way.
I could also state a bunch of other things including: America uses the most gas in the world. By attacking Iraq to get gas for just themselves, and getting a bunch of other people involved by claiming Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, they have raised gas prices not only for themselves but for the rest of the world too. America has no right to make people dispose of such weapons when they have more than any other country themselves. Now, I can carry on, but I think I will stop here to stop this turning into a political discussion.

you alreadt did shroud i suggest you use better judgement in the future.

Chill, bud, it's a joke about traffic laws, not a political jab. Everyone takes everything so seriously nowadays...