Quick question about roundabouts

Amoeba · 20 Sep 2011 at 11:56

I had a bloke pull out in front of me when I was following the path of the blue car above (no indication from me as I was yet to pass the first exit). We both had to emergency stop (with about 1 inch spare!), I swerved to avoid and we ended up with our open windows next to each other. He gave me a full on torrent of abuse calling me an ****** 'stroker' before I calmly shrugged my shoulders, shook my head and drove off. Can't understand how anyone could think I was in the wrong there...! Was close to loseing my rag with that one..

Edit -- wow ok a lot of new posts -- I meant the blue line from the highway code

SixTwoSix · 20 Sep 2011 at 11:58

@ Zefan...you just hurt my brain

Amoeba · 20 Sep 2011 at 11:58

Disco Boy said:
This. Unless otherwise indicated.

I was taught a slight derivation of this -- left lane if your exit is marked on the roadsign as being 12pm or before, even if the exit is physically at 1pm or whatever....

shoes · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:03

Zefan said:
Every time I see a roundabout thread I think of my hometown.

If you think people have trouble on normal roundabouts, come to Swindon and give this one a try. You'll rage harder than you ever have before

Nrghhhhhhhhhh.................. what's the point in that then? Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

Vonhelmet · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:06

MagicBoy said:

This, unless the road markings or signage indicate alternative lane use.

DiCe! · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:11

Zefan said:
Every time I see a roundabout thread I think of my hometown.

If you think people have trouble on normal roundabouts, come to Swindon and give this one a try. You'll rage harder than you ever have before

That is insane. I would **** myself if that came up ahead of me.

Amoeba · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:19

DiCe! said:
That is insane. I would **** myself if that came up ahead of me.

Why? Just follow the road markings and you will be ok, doesn't look too bad to me...!

[TW]Fox · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:20

Amoeba said:
Why? Just follow the road markings and you will be ok, doesn't look too bad to me...!

It's completely logical and sensible infact - a shame they didnt become more common, mostly due to peoples inability to think about something before declaring it awful I guess.

BombayMix · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:30

Zefan said:
If you think people have trouble on normal roundabouts, come to Swindon and give this one a try. You'll rage harder than you ever have before

One like that near me. Not that mad though. Used to one large roundabout now 5 smaller ones around it. Everyone thought it be a disaster but oddly it seems to work and traffic moves much faster now.

alx · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:42

Amoeba said:
I had a bloke pull out in front of me when I was following the path of the blue car above (no indication from me as I was yet to pass the first exit). We both had to emergency stop (with about 1 inch spare!), I swerved to avoid and we ended up with our open windows next to each other. He gave me a full on torrent of abuse calling me an ****** 'stroker' before I calmly shrugged my shoulders, shook my head and drove off. Can't understand how anyone could think I was in the wrong there...! Was close to loseing my rag with that one..

Edit -- wow ok a lot of new posts -- I meant the blue line from the highway code

I had the same happen recently, except I managed to stop with a few feet to spare.

Gave the woman proper evil eyes/glare, she looked pretty sheepish, and rightly so!!

Building Candy · 20 Sep 2011 at 12:45

[TW]Fox;20107748 said:
Outside lane if your exit is beyond 12pm.

Im not so sure on that. Roundabout I use daily has 2 lanes aproaching, 1st exit is about 2pm, 2nd exit 4pm. So by that the inside lane would never be used..... ever?

rapid64k · 20 Sep 2011 at 13:13

Anyone ever been on the "Magic roundabout" in Hemel Hempstead? Oh what joy.

squerble · 20 Sep 2011 at 13:16

Felt inclined to post in here...

The roadmarkings (and signs) clearly state to exit for the A571 to use the outside lane (marked in blue), yet people always take the inside lane all the way round (red line) and then when the inevitable happens at the orange marker the people in the red lane always flash and beep as though you (correctly following the blue line) are in the wrong.

Winds me up something rotten (this is in St. Helens if anyone is familiar). Use the roundabout each time to get home and it happens a lot.

Duke · 20 Sep 2011 at 13:19

I've seen some odd roundabout driving recently near me. It has happened several times in the last 6 months, it can't be the same/only person doing it.

On a ring road, on the first roundabout a lane appears on the right which should be for people only turning right (or going back the other direction) yet I've seen quite a few people sitting in this lane indicating right but then going straight over :confused:

The roundabout after that is a dual entry/exit, so on this one both lanes can go straight over if you wanted to, as long as you exit on the same lane as you entered, however the same driver entered on the right hand lane, indicating right again and did the same thing.. except this time they exited in the middle of both lanes :confused:

They then pulled to the left lane (right in front of me) even though there are two lanes for another few hundred meters. On the roundabout after that they did the same thing as the first, except the exit they wanted was a left! So they entered on the right lane (which is for exits at 2'oclock and 3'oclock) and then cut up the drivers in the left lane.

TL;DR: Drivers using right lane, indicating right then doing left or straight over.

Skillmister · 20 Sep 2011 at 13:22

[TW]Fox;20109959 said:
It's completely logical and sensible infact - a shame they didnt become more common, mostly due to peoples inability to think about something before declaring it awful I guess.

Amoeba said:
Why? Just follow the road markings and you will be ok, doesn't look too bad to me...!

DiCe! said:
That is insane. I would **** myself if that came up ahead of me.

Its all well and good being able to follow it yourself, id be crapping myself because of other road users however. If people cant get through 1 roundabout safely how are they going to manage 3 at a time

mistercrabb · 20 Sep 2011 at 13:39

The roundabout near my house is different, the road markings show that you must go left if you are in the left lane, the right lane is for straight across (or right).

Normally this isn't a problem, however once I was following a van, he was in the left lane. So I went into the right lane to go straight across. He was obviously blind and was going straight too, I ended up cutting him up so badly he had to emergency stop halfway across the roundabout.

Hagar · 20 Sep 2011 at 14:35

Of course there is the friday afternoon when the left filter lane is queuing for miles, use the right hand lane and do 270 degrees :eek:

But seriously common sense says, left hand lane unless marked otherwise to go left or ahead, right hand lane to turn right or ahead onto two lane road.

Indicate as necessary to show your intentions to exit the roundabout. Use the mirror before changing lanes.

Tute · 20 Sep 2011 at 14:47

I was taught that the inside lane is for the first two exits on a roundabout, unless markings or layout dictates otherwise (two exits, two lanes, etc.).

Rids · 20 Sep 2011 at 15:09

There is one roundabout in Crawley, after you come off the M23 at Pease Pottage. Left is towards Horsham, straight over is into the Bewbush area, and right takes you towards Gatwick.

There are two lanes on the approach, the left lane is usually busy as the route towards Horsham is a busy one. This means that an endless stream of ringpieces who think that they're more important than anybody else quite often shoot up the right hand lane and then turn left, often without indicating.

I have had three close calls on this roundabout, one of them an extremely close call, all because of people cutting me up in a dangerous manner without indicating, then they have the cheek to start hurling abuse like I am in the wrong?

Gibbo · 20 Sep 2011 at 15:37

Hi there

So guys what do you think about this one then:-

The red dots are traffic lights, they are there to control traffic coming of the A500 dual carriage way.

The problem area is where I have drawn the lines, those waiting at the traffic lights to continue along the A34 carriage way.

My view is anyone in the left hand lane (straight on) there *MUST* take the first exit as you get many who also go in the right hand lane who go straight on as well. This results in lots of close calls and the odd accident where people in the left hand lane have not exited onto the A34 or the services and carry on all the way round to either get back on A500 northbound or back towards Congleton.

So what happens is people also going straight onto the A34 in the right hand lane get side swiped.

Surely if your at those traffic lights and in the left hand lane you should either be taking the exit for the services or the first exit for the A34?

I am asking as I've even seen learner drivers with an instructor go all the way round, no indication etc.

For example green line is learner driver, blue line is car in right hand lane about to get a good smashing.

Whats the true score with this roundabout?

Obviously for those coming off the A500 they can go all the way round and anyone in the right hand lane is taking quite a risk if they want to take the first exit to the A34, basically expecting those in the left hand lane to also be heading towards to the A34.