Safe Speed Forums

So your correspondent Paula Andrews believes the overgrown Blandford roundabouts are a positive road safety tool, as "roundabouts are designed to slow traffic...".

Wrong! Roundabouts are designed to enable traffic from several directions to interchange as smoothly and quickly as possible. If slowing traffic down was the goal, a crossroads with traffic lights would do a much more efficient job (imagine rush hour!). No, the idea with roundabouts is that one can pass over them fairly quickly, if you can see that there is nothing else coming.

However, I've often suspected the planting of miniature forests is used to restrict road users' visibility; these days, they even erect fences on the approaches to roundabouts to mask your view of what's ahead (a la Countess Roundabout on the A303). It would seem "Speed Kills" is more important than being able to see.

How can restricting any road user's supply of sensory information make our roads safer? If you take this idea to its logical conclusion, we'd all be driving around in blinkers, so we had to come to complete halt every time we wanted to slightly change direction and turn our whole head to see what was coming. But hey, some off you probably think this sounds like a great idea. Perhaps we should ban rear-view mirrors too.

However I do agree utterly with Ms Andrews on one thing. Hardly anyone seems to indicate properly on the Blandford roundabouts. I've lost count of the number of times a car has emerged from behind the shrubbery without a right signal on - leading me to assume they are taking my turn off - only to turn towards me as I pull out. Now of course if I could see across the middle of the roundabout, I'd have more of an idea where they were going to go, based on which lane they emerged from....

I was interested to read <Johnnytheboy>'s letter about roundabouts. He confusingly mentions signalling right at a roundabout. Such a turn is impossible unless you want to drive through the shrubbery. At every roundabout that I can recall, everybody turns left from the approach road, and then left again at their desired exit. What therefore does a right turn indication mean?

When taking the last exit or going full circle

* signal right and approach in the right-hand lane
* keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
* signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

Thanks for making that clear!

Right indicator = staying on past next exit
Left Indicator = leaving at next exit
No Indicator = underutilisation of road capacity at roundabout due to ambiguity = congestion

So?

Is it wise advising people to disregard the Highway Code??

Sometimes. But I don't see any of that here.

162: Signals and position, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise.

When taking the first exit
signal left and approach in the left-hand lane
keep to the left on the roundabout and continue signalling left to leave.
When taking any intermediate exit
select the appropriate lane on approach to and on the roundabout, signalling as necessary
stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout
signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
When taking the last exit or going full circle
signal right and approach in the right-hand lane
keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
When there are more than three lanes at the entrance to a roundabout, use the most appropriate lane on approach and through it.

But the HC issue basically boils down to "do you indicate right if intending to take exit 3 of 4?"

As roundabouts have so many different configurations, it is impossible to be dogmatic about this. There are plenty where the traffic flows mean that it makes sense to signal right if taking exit 2 of 3.