How would you approach this roundabout?

Lum

I have my own opinion on this but keeping quiet to begin with so as not to affect the results. I'm posting this more out of curiosity than anything.

Pretend you're heading up the sliproad in the bottom left of the image, marked by the red arrow, and you are intending to be in lane 2 of the second exit, also marked by a red arrow



There are no lane markings or signs indicating which lane you should be in for any given destination. [Street view link] URL="http://i.imgur.com/2s1Qm.jpg"]Larger satellite image[/URL

1) Which of the 3 lanes should you be in for that route?

2) If different, which lane would you actually use?

3) If different, which lane would you expect others to use?

adouglasmhor

Hard to tell but I reckon the nearside "lane" would be correct. But I wouldn't indicate until alongside the island.

whitewing

I would probably be in the left lane going onto and coming off the roundabout, moving to the right when safe to do so.

My DH would probably be in the rh lane onto the rh lane on the roundabout and come off onto the rh lane.

It would probably depend more on how busy the roundabout tended to be when we used it and what most other people seemed to do.

Strider590

As the exit is a DC, i'd say left or middle lane.

s_b

if road markings are still not there i would approach roundabout in inside lane follow roundabout round and exit on inside lane then move across to outside lane if safe
this way you dont have accidents

the new thinking seems to be mark all roundabouts up wrongly with white paint these days so traffic would be in outside lane entering roundabout and inside lane would be for turning left only

Lifes_Grand_Plan

It looks like on that roundabout, using the slip road as you suggest, it looks like there is two possible exits, the first one almost immediately and then the second (which is two lanes...) there is also a third exit but that is getting back on the road you have just come from, oh and a fourth exit to go back on yourself...

I would expect someone using the second lane of the second exit to use either the 2nd (middle) or 3rd (outside) lane...

I'm guessing that is the problem though, that you want clarification of whether its second or third?

Lum

I'm just after opinions at this point, I know which lane I use and I'm quite happy to continue doing so.

For clarification, there are no lane markings on the roundabout itself and no signs or road markings indicating which lane you should use for any entrance. It's been unchanged for at least two years.


Next question:

Those of you who have said you would use Lane 1, what are lanes 2 and 3 used for?

lagi

At the end of the slip road i would want to be in middle lane. Then as continuing round the roundabout i would naturally come off in the outside lane (lane 2). or continue to next exit only.

I would expect the first lane of the slip road to go left or take lane 1 of your exit.

3rd lane of slip road would only be for turning right back round to where i just came off.

Have some similar roundabouts here and thats what most people would do.

alun4

I think it depends on how busy the junction is. I can't see much use for the right hand lane (except rejoining the dual carriage way or going all the way around to return from whence you came on the opposite carriageway.

If there was no or little traffic on the LH slip road lane I would be in that to give better view of traffic already on the roundabout and would then exit on the L H lane.

If it was busier and both left and middle lanes were taking traffic, I would be happy with the middle lane and RH lane for exit but being very careful the traffic on my left intended to go for 1st exit or LH lane of second exit!

whitewing

Sorry, I was looking at a small version of the photo and didn't see it split to 3 at the approoach to the roundabout. DH would be in middle lane coming off to rh lane on exit.

Lum

My take on it is that strictly speaking according to the "12 o'clock rule", you should be using L1 for both useful exits, L2 for going back onto the road you just left and L3 for doing a U turn. I also believe that this is a really poor use of road space.

In my ideal world, you'd use L1 for the housing estate and L2 and L3 for the northbound DC. Returning to the A48 and doing a U turn are niche uses that do not deserve to have their own dedicated lane. People doing either of these things would use L3.

In practice, I use L2 to get into that outside lane because I know if I use L3 then one day I'll encounter someone who wants to go back onto the A48 and one of us will end up having to take evasive action or end up in the side of the other.

Pretty much everyone else uses L1 for everything (almost nobody goes up there and then back onto the A48) and the other two lanes are left completely unused.

When it's busy, L1 can back right up and spill onto the A48, clogging up one of the main routes out of Cardiff and onto the M4. You'll get the odd person like me who will wind everyone up by shooting up L2 and taking the L2 exit onto the northbound DC, but most people just queue there for ages and leave the other two lanes empty.

This is congestion that would be easily avoided by spending a few hundred quid on a road sign or a bit of paint.