Safe Speed Forums

if we're going to refer back to the OP..... i see no mention of people approaching the roundabout... just people going around it too fast to give an HGV a chance to get out..... quite doable from a standing start depending on the roundabout size/layout.

Think this was the two points of view ----car drivers saying - "why should i slow down " and HGV saying "plonkers --give us a chance ".

Perhaps a good reason for not only making car drivers get out on a bike ( of both types) but also to be sat in the cab of a HGV, OR something with very restricted acceleration. You make a mistake in car, get hit by car - dents all round - these guys get it wrong -minced car driver. And who gets blamed - trucker of course.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

well yes i agree roundabouts with/without lane markings can be hazardous places which is reason enough to moderate your speed approaching and around them. which may coincidentally also be more courteous to those waiting to join, especially cyclists & HGVs.

but if you're going to post something like:


i can't help but raise a point of order that the OP doesn't actually mention people joining the roundabout !

(call me a pedant)

the HWC states we must give way to vehicles already established on the roundabout. which is bloody infuriating if the dozy plonker in front stops because they've seen something that's waiting for another car from another entrance/exit. filtering should be taught with rigour.
Big roundabouts are a pain. once cars are on some, travel much faster than others, so vehicles arrive in dribs and drabs making entrance difficult for slower vehicles. so "they" put traffic lights on them. we've got a notorious roundabout here known as "ben Hur" or "suicide" island. trouble is, not all entrances are controlled, only 3 of the 5. the phasing is such that they don't give time for traffic entering from an uncontrolled junction. a test of skill under acceleration for some, others think they're having to go against the lights ahead of them (not true) and artics are entering from another uncontrolled junction. the phasing is shocking and it's no wonder there are so many pile ups. swing round the island on a rare occasion when all the lights are in your favour and you could be met by by the side of a artic whose driver MUST take a chance getting out simply due to bad light phasing

To take a slightly different tack on this, I was under the seemingly dumb assumption that you only build roundabouts where the weight of traffic on roads joining the RA were similar. So avoiding situations like this. Otherwise you use TLs. I don't include RAs at M-way jcts in this.

There are couple of RA near here where one entry to the RA is much busier and anyone using the next entry needs an afterburner to get on to the RA, as they are confronted with two lanes of unbroken traffic that haven't had to do much braking at all. Eventually the local authority put TLs up. TLs on an RA = planning failure.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

have to say i've never really understood the fuss there.. never had a problem negogiating from a controlled or uncontrolled entrance.

sure you have to take care for numpties around you but thats life...

if you're trying to get out of london road at rush times, the phasing between existing roundabout traffic and that coming from birmingham along the A45 means if you have everyone on their toes, ready to go, about 6-8 cars can get out but there's always one that's half asleep or lacks confidence, or there's an HGV or loaded transit. All it needs is a few more seconds dwell between lights.
I don't have any problems with it myself but you only need one coming through late and another keen to get away and nothing exits the london road. The HA have said they'll be installing sensors in the london road to allow some dwell between the lights and perhaps get some traffic through. Latest plans are an underpass, which was on the plans when the road was first built. nothing like getting it right first time.

Well well, my goodness.

Ok, so my conclusion is speed humps on the roundabout, it takes a lot longer for a multi axled vehicle to cover each one, so entrance humps would mess it up.

Either that, or a max speed of say 10/15 miles an hour.
And i haven`t got an issue with approaching traffic, if i get on the roundabout before them, i have priority. (so you better slow down!)

Good luck all, thanks.

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Any man can be a father, it takes someone special to be a daddy.

Well I think this thread has adequately proved there needs to be give and take on both sides.

If both sides stick steadfastly to their point of view we will just have lots of delays and scrap metal.

My, my, Sixy, icandoit certainly knows how to push your buttons, doesn't he?


Deleted my feelings.

Is that the best you can manage for your sole contribution to this topic?

Would not that best have been a PM rather than posted in public? I thought the moderators didn't approve of ad hominem posting on this forum.

I don't find speed a problem on roundabouts, as they are generally self regulating. Indeed, if there is a slow person on the roundabout they cause more problems by causing a build up of traffic behind, and so creating a wall of traffic on the roundabout, making it impossible to join until the traffic that was delayed has dispersed.

Then think back to when there were no lights, and the reason it was named "kamikaze island" - HGV after waiting for a lengthy period , pulling out and those on the roundabout failing to notice them.
Nowadays, it's car drivers ,further on up the A46, typically the one with the A428

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

If all roundabout's were redesigned so that the roads join and leave them at true tangents then traffic could get on and off them easier, - as when getting on the roundabout you would be doing more of a merge than a turn left and vici verca. !

'Is that the best you can manage for your sole contribution to this topic? '

This topic is so clear-cut that it requires no discussion on my part!

If I smell a troll I'll comment.........

(And we've done our U2Uing.)

Now now.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

To be fair to icandoit, the a**se comment indeed didn’t add to the debate and was verging on ad hominem. Please could you refrain. Thanks.

cautiously filtering through traffic on the bike yesterday then took my place to take a small roundabout, which has 2 lanes on its approach. left lane is for turning left into the retail park, the RH lane for going straight ahead.
fella in a dirty great merc moved over to the left lane without indicating so i naturally assumed he was turning left, so as i'm now going straight on in the correct lane, i was bit concerned to find this zoot was doing the same.

exiting this roundabout the single lane widens to 4 so IMO there's plenty of time for me to go past but I was no real hurry.


so here's the Q. was he being an awfully nice bloke in moving over to let me past, or was he being a complete nunbskull?

Filtering to the front of a roundabout is one of the most dangerous things you can do on a bike as the people to the right of you are not expecting you to be there and will pull out on you without realising. In this instance I think it is you who should be considering whether you are the numbskull.

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Prepare to be Judged

did i say i filtered to the front? NO. i stayed back (took my place) as we were approaching the rondabout.