How do you know if a roundabout has two lanes?

deaston

neilmcl wrote: »

Take the roundabout out of the equation for the moment. If you were on a straight road and were about to turn right and the car behind passed you on the left as he's fully entitled to do then suddenly you decided to deviate your course and take a wider berth hitting the other car who do you think would be at fault? There's very little difference here, you were turning right and the other car judged it was safe to pass you until you changed your path.

As above if you hot the other car I would say you would be at fault but the majority of roundabout impacts usually end in a 50/50.

Then in future I won't give other drivers the option - I'll ensure there isn't the room for them to consider passing me on the inside as I go around the roundabout.

Strider590

I don't know if it's the way various posts have been worded, but I am now wondering if OP "made their car wider" to stop what they presumed to be an illegal undertake on a roundabout, perhaps by a driver who been doing a bit of tailgating prior.

In ligth of that and without any intended accusation, if your ever caught trying to enforce the law or most often some misguided made up version of it, then not only will your insurance company shaft you, but you could face jail time.
Dashcams are becoming increasingly common now, if not the car behind, maybe the car behind them or the car in front.

neilmcl

deaston wrote: »

Then in future I won't give other drivers the option - I'll ensure there isn't the room for them to consider passing me on the inside as I go around the roundabout.

If you want to impede other drivers than go for it but do prepare yourself for more beeping from irate drivers in future.

NBLondon

Strider590 wrote: »

I don't know if it's the way various posts have been worded, but I am now wondering if OP "made their car wider" to stop what they presumed to be an illegal undertake on a roundabout, perhaps by a driver who been doing a bit of tailgating prior.

I think you're projecting a bit here... Or remembering what has been done to you?

I read it as the OP made an initial mis-judgement of how tight a turn they should make to go around the roundabout and increased the radius of the turn slightly to correct. Why would he care about an "undertake" if the other car was going straight on? If the roundabout is genuinely wide enough for two lanes but that brings OP into conflict with the following vehicle then the follower is making an unsafe pass by not being properly in the virtual left lane.

Which could be why it would go 50:50 - without clear video evidence, it's hard to judge how much it is reasonable for OP to increase the radius of the turn without encroaching on another (unmarked) lane and how much the following vehicle is over the invisible lane boundary.

So, the safe option probably is to take the wider line from the start...

almillar

I was turning right and felt I was very close to the roundabout itself so adjusted my line so as to avoid kerbing my alloys. A car going straight on was literally inches from my car so, as I corrected, I came very close indeed

This simply made me question, if I had hit him, who'd have been in the wrong?

You would have been in the wrong. You turned into the side of another car. If your argument is that he shouldn't be there, you should stop if you can't proceed safely. If you can't stop in time, you were driving too fast.

So if I had hit the car yesterday, would they have been at fault? Surely I can't drive along a road and then decide to drive up the inside of the car in front of me just because there was "room for two cars"?

Keep yourself in front, position yourself from the start in a way that doesn't mean you have to adjust halfway through. Or, yes, stop and let others sort themselves out. But you can't drive into the side of people.

bris

It's a single lane roundabout, a 2 lane one will always have white lines separating the lanes, no they didn't just forget to paint them on.


It is easy to see what you mean but any accidents will most likely be classed as a 50/50 unless it's clear someone didn't give way. priority is usually always with the person who enters the roundabout first.

Joe_Horner

deaston wrote: »

So I have to judge if a car is going to enter the roundabout after me and assume there are two lanes? Impossible. How am I supposed to err on the side of caution? Just never enter the roundabout?

Either by:

Taking the centre of the single lane on the roundabout - the clue's in the lack of markings btw - as you're perfectly entitled to. That will actively prevent someone following you from treating it as two lanes. Be prepared to have people beep / swear / gesture / throw stones at you if you do this.

Or:

Keep as far to the right as possible when turning right and, if you need to correct your line, be extra vigilant for someone coming round the outside of you. A good starting point for that is assuming that someone who was behind you as you entered will be doing exactly that. If that means you need to slow right down to get the necessary precision of control then slow right down.

Either of the above will allow you to negotiate roundabouts like this without unexpectedly finding someone inches from your car.

deaston

neilmcl wrote: »

If you want to impede other drivers than go for it but do prepare yourself for more beeping from irate drivers in future.

But this is my point. It seems I have two options on a roundabout that doesn't appear to have two clearly defined lanes:

a) Keep hard to the right but risk another driver filling the (what I consider to be) minimal amount of space to my left which, the other day, came close to a collision.
b) Drive defensively and take-up the entire lane.

But according to this forum, neither of these are acceptable. So what should I do?

deaston

almillar wrote: »

you were driving too fast.

almillar wrote: »

Keep yourself in front

So I have to drive slowly but faster than the person coming up behind me? Considering the person entered the roundabout after me but was then next to me, clearly I was driving too slow to keep in front. But if I had increased my speed I would have been driving too fast.

Your logic makes no sense.

deaston

NBLondon wrote: »

I read it as the OP made an initial mis-judgement of how tight a turn they should make to go around the roundabout

Correct.

My personal feeling is that I entered the roundabout first and the car behind me took the decision that the roundabout had two lanes, so decided to pass very close to my left. Admittedly, I didn't realise he was there until I heard the beep and saw there were only a few inches between us (and before I corrected probably only six or seven inches).

I would have thought the onus is on the other driver to leave me enough room to complete my manoeuvre. But as many have said, it would have been 50/50 so, in future, I won't be taking chances and will be sure to occupy the entire lane so there's no opportunity for another driver to get that close again.