Roundabouts, does inside lane have priority onto it's left lane?

PDC

jase1 wrote: »

I think your "fail safe" approach is dangerous and stupid, frankly.

If you go right on a roundabout on the left where other drivers are trying to come off said roundabout having correctly taken the right-hand lane, you are going to cause an accident one day.

It's contrary to the highway code and I regularly sound my horn at drivers who do this.

*If* you make a point of indicating whilst going around on the left, then the impact of your actions is lessened. But absolutely invariably the drivers I see going all round a roundabout on the left lane don't bother to indicate either. One day one of them will be swiped by a bus, and I'll have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

For the record, the safest approach to a roundabout where you are unsure of your exit point, is to enter in the right hand lane and go around the roundabout, with indicators, for as many times as you need to acclimatise yourself. Why should other drivers have to suffer for your (frankly) laziness?

Agree nearly completely with this, apart from sounding your horn in you annoyance which is again contrary to the highway code.

To the OP who sees no problem in going all the way around in the left lane, the problem is non of the other drivers who are driving correctly around the island will be expecting someone to do what you are doing.

pacific4130

Londontiger, if you can't safely manoeuvre into a different lane then just take another spin around the roundabout. Never change direction unless you have ensured, within all reasonable doubt, that it is safe to do so. Better safe than sorry. Plus, it then gives a whole rotation to prepare to change lane.


On the subject of roundabouts, I'd also like to highlight a few pet hates from a bikers viewpoint....

1) The route across a roundabout is not point-to-point. If there are two lanes you need use one of them, not cut across the inside one because you're going to fast to drive in a curve. I've nearly been taken out a few time this way.

2) Car drivers: move your head, don't rely on your mirrors! Small vehicles like bikes will disappear into blind-spots on roundabouts.

3) Always, always, indicate. Even if you think you are on an empty roundabout. I'd rather get warning of being cut up so I can take avoiding action, rather than getting caught out. Bikes don't work like cars - things like braking and manoeuvring take a lot more thought; especially in the wet.

4) For bikers: a roundabout is a junction. Don't be a d*ck and race through filtering like an idiot. People have a hard enough time negotiating a roundabout as it is. They don't need a bike flying through to add to their problems. It's just giving (good) bikers a bad name. Filter through slow moving traffic, sure. But lane-splitting on a large faster roundabout is a swift route to A&E.

Lum

pacific4130 wrote: »

1) The route across a roundabout is not point-to-point. If there are two lanes you need use one of them, not cut across the inside one because you're going to fast to drive in a curve. I've nearly been taken out a few time this way.

This one is actually permissible, but only if there is not another road user near you in the lane you are cutting into. Obviously this includes bikes. If you don't know what's going on around you and don't know how to check your blind spot then don't do this!

If there is no-one else around it's technically safer to cut the roundabout as there is less cornering then.

Rank_Outsider

Lum wrote: »

This one is actually permissible, but only if there is not another road user near you in the lane you are cutting into. Obviously this includes bikes. If you don't know what's going on around you and don't know how to check your blind spot then don't do this!

If there is no-one else around it's technically safer to cut the roundabout as there is less cornering then.

The problem is that it's only permissible if you indicate - however because most people who do this are too lazy/selfish to slow down and steer properly around the lanes of a roundabout, they are also too lazy to indicate. If someone is going too fast to stay in lane, they are just going too fast - it is a junction and you can never be sure that there is no-one else using the junction (don't forget bicycles and pedestrians). I have observed many of these drivers going too fast to have properly checked for all other road users.

I regularly have problems crossing roads where there are no pedestrian crossings because of drivers who don't indicate - I'm sure some of them are thinking that because they don't see any cars, they don't need to - indicating isn't just for the benefit of other cars.

Lum

Well the usual reason for cutting through lanes on a roundabout, in my experience at least, is to go straight ahead without having to actually steer. In that case no indication is necessary other than the final left signal to exit.

Otherwise yes pedestrians fall under the same rule as previously. They need a signal just like you would in the presence of any other road user and if they're already crossing you have to give way to them. You also probably don't want to be barrelling through at speed if there's pedestrians about, regardless of whether you stick to your lane or not.

brat

O/T, but no indication is ever necessary unless another road user will benefit from it.

Lum

brat wrote: »

O/T, but no indication is ever necessary unless another road user will benefit from it.

Rank's complaint was about drivers not indicating when he is trying to cross as a pedestrian.

I personally count pedestrians as road users, and thus your statement is correct, but a lot of drivers only seem to apply your statement to road users with wheels*.

*They probably also apply it to road users with tracks, but still manage to ignore users of wheelchairs, mobility scooters, and probably bikes too half the time

reeac

jase1 wrote: »

I think your "fail safe" approach is dangerous and stupid, frankly.

If you go right on a roundabout on the left where other drivers are trying to come off said roundabout having correctly taken the right-hand lane, you are going to cause an accident one day.

It's contrary to the highway code and I regularly sound my horn at drivers who do this.

*If* you make a point of indicating whilst going around on the left, then the impact of your actions is lessened. But absolutely invariably the drivers I see going all round a roundabout on the left lane don't bother to indicate either. One day one of them will be swiped by a bus, and I'll have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

For the record, the safest approach to a roundabout where you are unsure of your exit point, is to enter in the right hand lane and go around the roundabout, with indicators, for as many times as you need to acclimatise yourself. Why should other drivers have to suffer for your (frankly) laziness?

I'm having some difficulty in understanding your first para. but I think that you mean "going around a roundabout in the LH lane" but then you say that other drivers who are in the RH lane who want to exit will be faced with a problem as there is already a car in the LH lane. Surely thay will move into the LH lane either in front of or behind that car ..why the collision hazard?

Then there's the matter of indicating whilst going around the LH lane. I would disagree with this as a RH indication would be taken as signalling a lane change to the right whilst a LH indication would be taken as signalling an intention to take the next exit. I would say indicate for an intended lane change or exit but NOT if you're staying in your present lane for any distance.

jase1

PDC wrote: »

Agree nearly completely with this, apart from sounding your horn in you annoyance which is again contrary to the highway code.

I'm not sounding the horn in annoyance. The other driver is unaware of the presence of the fact that they are driving into the path of other road users in contravention of the rules of the road. I am alerting them to the presence of the vehicle they've just cut up.

jase1

reeac wrote: »

I would say indicate for an intended lane change or exit but NOT if you're staying in your present lane for any distance.

Wow.

So here it is, reeac doesn't think indication is correct when traversing a roundabout.

No wonder there are so many near-misses on UK roundabouts.