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Driving and Roads

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Going around the dot doesn't pass the 'so what ' test for me. Give way to the right and drive over the dot as long as it doesn't inconvenience others.
But the HC actually says
Mini-roundabouts. Approach these in the same way as normal roundabouts. All vehicles MUST pass round the central markings except large vehicles which are physically incapable of doing so.
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Trev said:
Give way to the right and drive over the dot as long as it doesn't inconvenience others.
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But that's the point - they're so used to cutting the corner they forget about the giving way bit. Also, drivers seem to have forgotten that a vehicle already on the roundabout (ie over its respective give-way line) trumps a vehicle still behind its give-way line, regardless of what speed it might be doing.

Regarding yesterday's incident: because the mini-roundabout is at a tee junction I think the straight-through route "thinks" it's just a normal tee junction. A lump in the road would help dispel that notion.
 
I thought priority went to whoever was travelling fastest, even if they haven't got to the roundabout yet .

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Black Hole said:
Regarding yesterday's incident: because the mini-roundabout is at a tee junction I think the straight-through route "thinks" it's just a normal tee junction. A lump in the road would help dispel that notion.
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Isn't there a warning sign on the approach?

In Penrith, we have an offset cross road with a mini roundabout at each end and very close to each other. Makes for some interesting situations.
 
hairy_mutley said:
I thought priority went to whoever was travelling fastest, even if they haven't got to the roundabout yet .
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That seems to be a common belief. Some years ago, I was subjected to a long blast on the horn from a car that seemed to think I was in the way of his passage through across a roundabout at 50mph.
 
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RobH1 said:
Isn't there a warning sign on the approach?
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Yes: a roundabout warning-triangle sign, then a 30mph restriction complete with red tarmac and a white "30" painted on the road, then the give way triangle sign and blue-circle-with-arrows roundabout sign at the give-way line, the white road give-way triangle and give-way line itself. Streetview it from the link above.

However, I am increasingly aware that drivers simply don't read road signs - evidenced by the number who join motorways in a dedicated lane (as shown by huge signboards on the approach) yet immediately move over to the right into traffic despite there being no traffic in their own lane to overtake.

Coming off the M4 eastbound onto the M32, there are three lanes of slip-road approaching a traffic-light controlled "roundabout" (it isn't, exactly), and unless you want to rejoin the M4 the only way to go is right... but the left hand slip lane will then exit the M32 almost immediately (having gone right with the other two lanes). Overwhelmingly, the majority of the traffic queues for the right hand slip lane... even those intending to exit the M32 at that junction and despite all the signs and road markings! I can't believe they are all new to the junction! (I take advantage of this of course - usually using the centre slip lane or even the left one.)
 
MikeSh said:
I actually think the US system of just having compulsory Stop lines and first to stop has right of way would be better for the way people drive these days.
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I've never driven in Germany, but was told there is a system there where you are supposed to give way to traffic from the right at a junction unless there is a yellow diamond sign before it - when you have priority. Trouble is, every junction seemed to have yellow diamonds so it ends up just like here.
 
In Australia in the early seventies the rule was 'give way to the right' even on roundabouts. This meant that you could be hurtling down a main road and someone from a small road on the right would poodle out. The brake light show could be quite amazing ! It was also about this time they changed from MPH to KPH...
The rule was tweaked in the mid-seventies with the introduction of a rocket sign. This showed that you had right of way over traffic emerging from the right at the next junction.
They finally introduced a system like ours - major/minor roads, give way signs with the relevant road markings.
 
peterworks said:
This meant that you could be hurtling down a main road and someone from a small road on the right would poodle out.
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I understand this is true (or used to be) in France. It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, more concerned with giving the individual a break than the overall safety of the system.

The only foreign land I've spent any time in is Canada, and the only oddity about that was the meaning of flashing red or flashing amber lights (and being able to make a near-side turn against the lights)... and the general absence of roundabouts at all.
 
EEPhil said:
More confusion from Germany. Some traffic lights were part time. In the evening the main road had the traffic lights turned off, but the side road had flashing amber to warn you to give way.
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Canada (and I suspect USA): part-time lights (typically at a crossroads out in the sticks), when "off shift" flashing red means stop and give way, flashing amber (the higher priority road) means proceed with caution.

The bugger is that lights are suspended on wires above the centre of the intersection. Being used to lights at the stop line, and in the dark, I found myself stopped at red but in the middle of the junction!

The other bugger was making a turn in a quiet residential area (with no other traffic to follow) and finding myself on the wrong side of the road (out of habit). One day I ended up face to face with a cyclist... then realised it was him that was in the wrong side of the road!
 
Black Hole said:
I understand this is true (or used to be) in France. It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, more concerned with giving the individual a break than the overall safety of the system.
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This also used to be the case in the Netherlands - at least in the 80s/90s when I lived there. It also applied on roundabouts, which used to give me trouble as I'd learned the UK rule for roundabouts,
and just couldn't get used to the switch

Every time I raised this I got the 'so you use the same rule as we do, then - priority from the right on a roundabout'...... bloody roommate :)
 
If every road approaching a roundabout has priority over traffic already on the roundabout, why isn't there instant gridlock?
 
Black Hole said:
because the mini-roundabout is at a tee junction I think the straight-through route "thinks" it's just a normal tee junction.
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It obviously was before somebody decided to 'improve' it. I wonder why they did it? The only beneficiary is traffic turning out of what was the side-road, and the main road hardly seems as though it'd be busy enough to make this a problem most of the time.
Black Hole said:
then the give way triangle sign and blue-circle-with-arrows roundabout sign at the give-way line,
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Those signs seem too close to the junction to me to be of use. They need to be further away so you have time to process what they're trying to tell you.
And they seem to be perilously close to being obscured by vegetation, depending on when those images were taken - perhaps they already are.

At least you didn't have to get the T-cut out.
Black Hole said:
evidenced by the number who join motorways in a dedicated lane (as shown by huge signboards on the approach) yet immediately move over to the right into traffic despite there being no traffic in their own lane to overtake
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Yes, this bugs me too. They are so programmed to move right that they don't engage their brain cell. M40/M42 westbound is another one.
 
What annoys me is that since they did away with the motorway regulations sign, there's little (if anything) to tell you you're joining a motorway... and nothing which says you are no longer in a 30mph limit (or whatever).
 
What planet are you talking about BH? Motorway signs have a blue background and there is nearly always a NSL or other limit specified on the rear of the 30 signs.
 
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