who has priority changing lanes on gyratory roundabout?

littlerock

The Shepherds Bush gyratory roundabout in west London is one of London' s gnarlier systems. Depending on which spoke you want to exit from, you can find yourself having to move across a couple of lanes once on the system, to be in the correct lane to exit. Tonight I saw two cars lose their wing mirrors when both tried to get into the adjacent lane from opposite sides in order to be in the correct lane for the appropriate exit point .

One car was undoubtedly going faster coming in from the left and hit the wing mirror of a guy moving over from the right but they were parallel to each other at the point their wing mirrors collided . no other damage I could
see as system was too full for them to be going very fast. Neither was in an incorrect lane at the time (both in straight on lanes) but were positioning to cross over to opposite exit points. I know from my own experience it can be very hard if not impossible to enter the system in the same lane you will need to use to exit it.

There are a number of these gyratory roundabouts in London.
I imagine this is a common occurrence particularly when there are lane closures/road works/box junctions/bus lanes/traffic lights all in the mix as at Shepherds Bush. Who has priority changing lanes in these situations? Traffic moving left to right or right to left?

esuhl

I'm not entirely sure that I can follow what happened (and I don't know the roundabout in question), but if you image a 3-lane motorway, with a car in the leftmost lane and one in the rightmost lane both trying to move to the centre lane at the same time... then I don't think either car has priority.

Both drivers are responsible for ensuring that the lane they are moving into is (and remains) clear for them. I guess any insurance claim (without mitigating circumstances) would find them equally liable.

InsideInsurance

Is this the roundabout? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5045902,-0.2164801,128m/data=!3m1!1e3

No one has priority over changing lanes, and many roundabout accidents end up 50/50 because no one can agree on the circumstance and there are no witnesses to confirm what happened.

With large roundabouts like the above its actually in theory very easy because there is no need for anyone to change lane as the lanes automatically spiral out and its only those in wrong lanes that have to change (which is a worrying large percentage of people).

In many cases its small roundabouts without very clearly marked lanes which are messy to deal with but again, due to poor lane discipline they all tend to have accidents.

alun4

I can think of two reasons why I am inclined to think the left hand lane driver is more "in the wrong". The first is that the roundabout is still a carriageway and what you seem to be saying is that he is "undertaking". The second is that the inside lane driver in a right hand drive car is in a better position to view the lanes to his right than the guy in the right hand lane is to view the lanes to his left and rear. I accept there are blind spots.
Very difficult to even comment, without knowing the layout and viewing the incident. We shouldn't move into a space we are not certain is free of any obstruction or danger....... But that is living in an ideal world!

forgotmyname

Undertaking? The car to the left maybe going slower than the car to the right.

The car to the left is more in the wrong? The car to the right maybe in their blindspot.

Astronaughtwannabe

The vehicle exiting has priority.

dacouch

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Is this the roundabout? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5045902,-0.2164801,128m/data=!3m1!1e3

No one has priority over changing lanes, and many roundabout accidents end up 50/50 because no one can agree on the circumstance and there are no witnesses to confirm what happened.

With large roundabouts like the above its actually in theory very easy because there is no need for anyone to change lane as the lanes automatically spiral out and its only those in wrong lanes that have to change (which is a worrying large percentage of people).

In many cases its small roundabouts without very clearly marked lanes which are messy to deal with but again, due to poor lane discipline they all tend to have accidents.

I think she means the bit that goes around the green https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Shepherd's+Bush,+London+W12/@51.5046431,-0.2235365,16z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x48760fd28997cb07:0x6c79a6e5e0483766

bouicca21

Surely both are in the wrong as both should have been more aware of other traffic (and signalling).

I hate that roundabout, but once I'm into the system it always seems to work out.

buglawton

esuhl wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure that I can follow what happened (and I don't know the roundabout in question), but if you image a 3-lane motorway, with a car in the leftmost lane and one in the rightmost lane both trying to move to the centre lane at the same time... then I don't think either car has priority.

Both drivers are responsible for ensuring that the lane they are moving into is (and remains) clear for them. I guess any insurance claim (without mitigating circumstances) would find them equally liable.

Exactly, and a similar thing happened to me recently on a motorway where I and another driver headed into same gap in a lane at same time from different sides. Traffic was so slow that he (who was slightly behind me) easily managed to pull back But he was not happy. The issue is that in very dense traffic it is very hard to spot what a car 2 lanes away is about to do.

Strider590

Surely your not supposed to change lanes? In the example shown above, the idea is to be in the correct lane coming onto the roundabout and then as you move around the outer lanes split off into two lanes to allow a left exit. This is how most of these systems work across the whole of the UK. The problem comes when people don't pay attention to what lane they're supposed to be in.

buglawton

Counsel of perfection. If it's your commute route and you know the lanes, all well and good. I find that most advance lane markings are poor, the on road markings being of course covered in busy slow traffic. Part of driving skill is to half-expect other drivers (sometimes large lorries) to cross lanes 'too late', consider yourself lucky if they signal in time.