Driving and Roads

One way to resolve the problem would be to cone off between the lanes (perhaps with a "stay in lane sign") until you reach BH's defined point. Remove the cones between lanes, taper the closing lane (over a couple of lorry lengths) and put a sign there telling drivers to "merge in turn" and hope for the best.
 
EEPhil said:
One way to resolve the problem would be to cone off between the lanes (perhaps with a "stay in lane sign") until you reach BH's defined point. Remove the cones between lanes, taper the closing lane (over a couple of lorry lengths) and put a sign there telling drivers to "merge in turn" and hope for the best.
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I've thought about that: coning between the lanes would be a huge increase in the effort required to set out roadworks (and expose the crew to more danger), and likely result in lots of dead cones. I think simple signs "join shortest queue" and then "stay in lane until merge", then a sign showing zip merging at the merge point, should be enough to get the message across. The closing lane is usually tapered with cones anyway.

I think the real problem is the uneducated drivers who don't know / can't remember what they should be doing - make it clear and most will observe it and then make things uncomfortable for those who don't.
 
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This is Brook Hill Roundabout, as it is now, without the satellite mini roundabouts. The spiral lanes are clear on this satellite view.
 
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Here is the roundabout my friend constructed with spiral lanes. It is much changed now, with Supertram bridging it, and is more a one way system than roundabout.
 
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The magic roundabout, Swindon.

Edit: Apparently not.
 
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Mike0001 said:
Here is the roundabout my friend constructed with spiral lanes. It is much changed now, with Supertram bridging it, and is more a one way system than roundabout.
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They used to call those sort of things 'rotaries' didn't they? Or am I thinking of an American thing? :confused:
 
Brian said:
I think that The Plough Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead looks better than the Swindon one. :)
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Oh, that is serious!

I had to drive through our experimental constantly changing roundabout to park in 1973, you never knew what it would look like. It was laid out in concrete slabs. As I only took my test in late 1972, I was quite nervous about it, until I realized that as long as I didn't hit any concrete, I could take just about any route over it. The only strange one was going round the central island counter clockwise.

Yes, roundabouts are rotaries in the USA, and very rare in the central rockies, Utah north and south, up to Wyoming and down to Arizona. In fact, I was surprised at seeing one at all, in Park City, the only one I came across.

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On the subject of strange roundabouts, how about this?
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I was unfortunate enough to have a flat car battery at the pub on the right some years ago, coinciding with a dying mobile battery and a pub payphone that didn't work. I got through to the AA and said I was at Owler Bar. It's almost 1000' long, you can't miss it. The AA said they had no idea where it was.
 
Given the state of some of these roundabouts, I'll withdraw my earlier statement that roundabouts are one way (clockwise) by design. Clearly the one posted by Mike0001 at #46 was designed to cause the maximum confusion!
Mike0001 said:
On the subject of strange roundabouts, how about this?
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Not really a roundabout. If I hadn't just made the previous comment, I would have said it supports the one way clockwise roundabout observation.
Owler Bar: No wonder the AA were confused. I thought this was the name of the pub, which it isn't. Still, there's no excuse for the AA not doing some research and finding the place. Took me less than a minute.
 
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that something is a roundabout only if it has roundabout signs on approaching it, which Owler Bar does. But someone somewhere must decide whether it is a roundabout---this one is stretched to the limit of breaking---and what if only some of the approaches mark it as a roundabout?

I am beginning to feel like this man.

http://www.roundaboutsofbritain.com/about-us/

See his Az profile here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kevin-Beresford/e/B0034PIAMS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1491164538&sr=8-1

Or a fitting tribute.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/redditch-roundabouts-calendar-man-named-7903409
 
Mike0001 said:
Yes, roundabouts are rotaries in the USA, and very rare in the central rockies, Utah north and south, up to Wyoming and down to Arizona. In fact, I was surprised at seeing one at all, in Park City, the only one I came across.
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I came across a roundabout in Canada, and the locals didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it (come to think of it, the locals were no bloody good at driving at all).

I was, however, early on in my Canadian driving and at night, very startled to find myself stationary at a red light in the middle of the junction - being used to the lights being at the stop line here! The only reasonable thing I could do was drive on!

Saw a right one today. M4 J18, I was heading onto the A46 southbound. As I came past the westbound exit from the M4 onto the roundabout, there was a vehicle parked with hazard lights. It then appeared to start reversing back down the slip - surely he/she hadn't decided this was the wrong junction, and thought the best thing to do was reverse back to the motorway to continue the journey???
 
EEPhil said:
Clearly the one posted by Mike0001 at #46 was designed to cause the maximum confusion!
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It's quite easy really - been round it loads of times. You aren't really aware of going round the centre the 'wrong' way because of the bridges which hide the bigger picture. The signs tend to send you one way rather than the other as well.
The bugger with Swindon is that lots of the bridges are quite low, which is a right pain when you're in a higher sided vehicle that doesn't fit.
 
Black Hole said:
....It then appeared to start reversing back down the slip - surely he/she hadn't decided this was the wrong junction, and thought the best thing to do was reverse back to the motorway to continue the journey???
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What an idiot!
I had a similar problem once on the M42/M6. With roadworks and a lot of misleading signs, I missed the junction I wanted. I did what one is supposed to do. I went to the next junction and came back down the other side and left the motorway at the correct junction. It's inconvenient, but a lot safer.
 
Same goes for late exit manoeuvres, where the idiot in question would rather dive across the white keep-out areas and risk an accident than correct it at the next junction. I see drivers disregarding solid white lane dividers all the time.
 
What about drivers who keep to the left lane while going round a roundabout to take the last exit? :eek:
 
That is dangerous usually, but ok on roundabouts with only one lane, or mini roundabouts.:D

On a related theme, any idea of safe ways to navigate roundabouts? One trick I sometimes use is when I am going left or straight ahead and my approach is congested, but the right hand lane is clear. Do a 270° or 360° clockwise turn round the roundabout. It works well and is unlikely to annoy other drivers as they almost certainly don't even notice.:p
 
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