I Hate Roundabouts

[marksi]

http://www.driving-test-success.com/rou ... bouts.html

Going straight on you do not indicate on the approach to the roundabout or on it until you have passed the exit before the one you are leaving on, at which point you indicate left until you have left the roundabout.

[scottishtv]

Going straight on you do not indicate on the approach to the roundabout or on it until you have passed the exit before the one you are leaving on, at which point you indicate left until you have left the roundabout.

Thanks for this info. I'm was sure this was the case, but people here in Edinburgh at these three roundabouts hardly ever indicate to show they are continuing straight ahead, and it causes so many unnecessary stops-and-starts.

...and that's what really grinds my gears.

[Neil Jones]

1. One feels you should be able to start in one lane and go all the way around, never changing lanes if your choice is correct. The problem is, if you don't know the roundabout, you cAn't be sure of which entry lane is for your exit.

This is what the big signs are for prior to the roundabout to theoretically guide you as to which lane you're supposed to be in. In theory it rarely works out like that. Dual-carriageways often split into three lanes approaching a roundabout. One near me the outside lane splits into two at the first roundabout going one way, then at the next roundabout the inside lane splits and on the third, the outside lane splits. Ironically enough coming the other way the first roundabout doesn't split at all, the second splits in the middle lane and the third doesn't split either.

2. What are you meant to do hwhen your exit is coming up imminently, but there is heavy traffic to the left ('outside') of you? Clearly indicate left, but slowing down infuriates other drivers. Are those outside meant to give way to you? Is it acceptable to actually stop on a roundabout to complete a manoeuvure?

In theory you should never stop on a roundabout. In theory if you can't get off the roundabout you're not supposed to enter it in the first place, similar to yellow box junctions. You're also not supposed not to block other exits, entrances or do anything on a roundabout except keep moving, unless you're on pain-in-the-arse traffic control lights, because the whole idea of a roundabout is to keep traffic moving.

In reality what most people do is get on and if you're stuck, you're stuck and if you're blocking somebody else, tough. The concept of give-way-to-the-right still applies so theoretically you're not at fault since at normal speed they'd have to give way to you anyway.

As to what you do, if you're exiting onto a dual-carriageway, take the outside lane if possible. Otherwise go round again.

3. Point 2 would be somewhat easier if these mega roundabouts actually HAD lanes. As it stands many of them, like marble arch, either have large lane-free (wide road) sections, or the lanes are treated like they don't exit. So I become convinced I am about to crash into soMeone by changing notional lanes. Also everyone seems to drive very fast on these roundabouts which confuses me. What then?

Roundabouts with lanes are supposed to be safer. Any well-designed roundabout will allow you to get on and off at any junction you care to mention without having to change lanes. Roundabouts with lanes are generally so because otherwise they're too dangerous without them, and therefore a stopgap between uncontrolled and sticking traffic lights on them.

4. Supposing you end up in a lane which leads to an exit you, umm, don't want to exit out of. Now I know you might say 'tough, you picked the wrong lane, you exit'. However in London, a wrong exit may lead to a congestion charge thou were trying to avoid, and £8 is a heavy charge just for missing a lane. What to do? Stop and indicate right? (I have tried this and it went down seriously badly).

Follow the road you end up on and turn round where possible. You may be able to simply drive on on an otherwise empty roundabout but it'll be asking for trouble at rush hour. Your fault if you cause an accident because you tried not to go where the lane goes.

5. Are there any other unspoken 'not in the highway code' rules about monolithic roundabouts that I'd like to know? Things like lane 'squeezing', unofficial lane changing, dealing with roundabouts where the lanes 'spiral' outwards or other... Tips?

Easy roundabout rules, don't change lanes unless you really have to, and watch out for really long lorries that end up in the middle lane and want to go straight on when you're turning left. To take a small-ish roundabout and drive an articulated lorry around it for a straight on means the load will drift into the nearside lane naturally and usually it'll end up in front of you as the lorry goes round the outside of the roundabout. Therefore either get up to the driver's cabin or behind the entire lorry.

Oh yeah, don't tailgate either. One of the stupidest things you can do is tailgate somebody anywhere, but on a roundabout it's asking for trouble on a sharper exit when he's going there and you're not. Many of the most annoying habits about other drivers is people who change lanes without signalling, without looking, at the last minute and generally get in everybody else's way. You wonder sometimes how these people actually passed their test.

[Rob Del Monte]

I've got one of those double mini-roundabouts down the road, near where I am at the moment.
It is essentially two mini-roundabout connected by a tiny road in between.
It contains five exits (two A-roads at a staggered crossroads and another road)

The other exit is one-way (going away from the roundabout), and starts at a fork formed by a traffic island, so from one direction you use the fork (which could be seen as a sort of sixth exit)—not the roundabout,

and PLUS its one-way counterpart carrying the traffic onto the junction enters only about a hundred yards before (or after) the roundabout, forming a sort of seventh exit in a hundred yards of road. Oh, and this is also forked by a traffic island, for left- and right-turns—forming a sort of eighth!

Oh … and in the middle of it all, there's a pelican crossing.

PHEW!! All this in a village centre.