Roundabout best practice

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Wed 30 Dec 2009 12:53
Roundabout best practice - martinalexander
There's a roundabout I regularly approach intending to go straight over (standard 4 exits/approaches, 1 lane on/off at each). The general flow of the traffic seems to be that on the road I approach from the majority of the drivers are going straight over. At the opposite side most drivers are approaching signalling a right turn (across my approach).
My question is, if I'm at the approach to the roundabout and going straight over (so no signal required) but not yet on the roundabout, and I can see a car directly opposite and indicating right (will cross my path), I, and I've seen many other drivers do the same, tend to give way even though the opposite car is not yet on the roundabout - is this the right thing to do? As I say, the bulk of the traffic approaching from the opposite side is turning right so this can cause hold-ups for my lane wanting to go straight over.
I suppose I'm getting at is when should drivers 'give way to the right'. The cars turning right always assume you will give way to them even when not actually on the roundabout and hence tend to approach at a fair pace. Barrelling along in the belief that once they are on the roundabout they will have right of way so they may as well 'assume' the right of way before they actually get on the roundabout.
There have been times when I will be on the roundabout going straight over and the approaching opposite car will bomb on signalling right with little regard as to whether I am across the roundabout.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:03
Roundabout best practice - the swiss tony
what size roundabout are we talking about?
I tend to treat mini-roundabouts differently to a fullsized one.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:09
Roundabout best practice - Armstrong Sid
Sounds like the OP is referring to a mini-roundabout.

Surely the rules of priority are exactly the same as on a full-size roundabout - you give way to traffic on your right which is already in the roundabout. Trouble is, some people don't seem to see a mini as simply being a small version of the normal sized version. I've seen people come steaming in from an entrance road and just go straight across, even though there was another vehicle already in the mini-roundabout turning right.

And yet conversely, some people who don't understand it is a small roundabout will sit there at the entrance to it waiting for a gap in the traffic and treating it like a T-junction, oblivious to the fact that they have priority (assuming that the high-speed ignoramuses are not treating it like a straight road)
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:22
Roundabout best practice - the swiss tony
Surely the rules of priority are exactly the same as on a full-size roundabout -
you give way to traffic on your right which is already in the roundabout.


That is exactly correct, but as you yourself said, some people do disregard that simple rule, so I look further down the road, and try to suss them before they are near the mini-roundabout, adjusting my speed to allow them to pass before I get to the junction, NEVER a good idea to try and race them to it.
its not easy, but you can recognise that type of driver in a lot of cases!
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:08
Roundabout best practice - FotheringtonThomas
Can you add a pointer to a Google map URL?
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:33
Roundabout best practice - Clanger
A balance between being in the right and having an accident. HC says "give priority to traffic approaching from your right". In theory oncoming traffic won't be approaching from your right unless they have reached the roundabout and be moving round it. So you could enter the roundabout and force a confrontation with oncoming faster traffic turning right. Put it to the test by all means in a tatty Land Rover, otherwise discretion is called for.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 13:46
Roundabout best practice - martinalexander
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
It's the roundabout on the junction of Halfway street and Willersley Avenue. You can see it best on the satellite view. It's a very busy 'mini' roundabout.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 14:02
Roundabout best practice - FotheringtonThomas
Arr. That'd be tinyurl.com/yggz7fy, then.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 14:15
Roundabout best practice - kithmo
I wouldn't class that one as a mini-roundabout, it's more the size of a small one without a grass circle. I would only give way to traffic that is already on the roundabout.
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Keith
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 14:37
Roundabout best practice - Armstrong Sid
After what I said earlier about people who go straight on at mini-roundabouts, I'm surprised to see the size of this thing - more a midi-roundabout.

If drivers can't operate on the "give way to traffic already on the right" principle on something like this, then they really shouldn't be on the road. I was expecting it to be one of those places where the roundabout is nothing more than a blob of white paint in the middle of a junction. This looks almost like a real roundabout.

No excuses for stupidity.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 14:46
Roundabout best practice - Lud
A Volvo waddled into my path on a roundabout in Surrey a week or so back. It wasn't a super-near one, but I like the sound of my car's horn and gave it a blast.
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Wed 30 Dec 2009 14:55
Roundabout best practice - martinalexander
Thanks for the correct map link FT.
Just to clarify, when I said I approach this roundabout intending to go straight over - I didn't mean straight over without stopping/giving way! I meant my intended exit is the one straight across from my entry road.
This is a very busy roundabout. The white centre section is a large slightly raised area.
I usually approach the roundabout travelling right to left (as you look at FT's link) and the majority of the vehicles travelling left to right will be turning right. There is good vision over the roundabout to see approaching traffic indicating so I will generally know in advance if someone is going to turn right.
People who drive this route a lot however, will often 'cut' the roundabout and approach at speed indicating right, and crossing the raised centre circle taking it for granted that they will obtain right of way, to the extent that if you set off to travel straight over from right to left, you may well find a car travelling at speed to your driver's door, hooting at your presence.
From a standing start, with one car indicating right and one going straight over - the right turners seem to have adopted as a given the belief that they are entitled to right of way so that you should not enter the roundabout if you see one of them approaching. I.e the right of way gained once the car is already on the roundabout seems to have somehow been extended to appraoching vehicles into a right of 'clear-off, I'm coming through!' on the basis that I'll have the right of way when I get there!
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Fri 1 Jan 2010 20:33
Roundabout best practice - kithmo
So in effect, these right turners are going round the roundabout the wrong way by cutting across the LARGE white area. I'd ignore their hoots and let them crash into my door if they so want. The position of the crash would give away the fact that they were in the wrong. They are supposed to go behind you if you are on the roundabout and even if it was a crossroads and not a roundabout they should go behind you.
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Keith
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