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I understand how it's supposed to work, but I still think it's stupid and not intuitive. If I want to turn left I'm supposed to get in the inside lane, drive around the circle and then turn across the outside lane to exit, and hope no one is in that lane?
Nope, not going to do it. The exits are on the outside, so I'm going to stay in the outside lane and ride it around to wherever I'm getting off, no matter which exit it is. I will never get in the inside lane of a multi-lane roundabout if I can help it.
And just for good measure, I think I'll start coming to a complete stop before entering roundabouts from now on, regardless of whether there are any vehicles in it or not. Only after making sure there are no vehicles either in the roundabout or approaching it from any other direction will I proceed.
The problem arises when you enter from the outside lane alongside or slightly in front of another vehicle on the inside lane. The vehicle on the inside lane may want to go straight through the intersection. By choosing to be in the wrong lane you now have to cross their path. But yeah, if you can't figure out how to use a round-about it's better to just stop and hold up traffic than cause an accident. Just be sure to look behind you as well and make sure there's no cars coming up on the inside lane. Since you're using it wrong, you need to yield to those vehicles coming up behind you as well.
I understand how it's supposed to work, but I still think it's stupid and not intuitive. If I want to turn left I'm supposed to get in the inside lane, drive around the circle and then turn across the outside lane to exit, and hope no one is in that lane?
Nope, not going to do it. The exits are on the outside, so I'm going to stay in the outside lane and ride it around to wherever I'm getting off, no matter which exit it is. I will never get in the inside lane of a multi-lane roundabout if I can help it.
And just for good measure, I think I'll start coming to a complete stop before entering roundabouts from now on, regardless of whether there are any vehicles in it or not. Only after making sure there are no vehicles either in the roundabout or approaching it from any other direction will I proceed.
So rather than learn how to do it properly and then do it that way, you're going to chose to remain ignorant and do it illegally, putting people in danger? Seems like a good plan. I hope you're never driving in my town since we have a ton of these.
I think the most likely accident waiting to happen is:
1) A car coming in from the right that wants to go straight across to the left....has to navigate between the blue car going north to south....AND the inner roundabout RED car that is going straight, north to south.
Keep the blue and red cars coming from the bottom, the red car at the bottom goes right..
Now.. Say that there is a blue car that enters from the top (outside lane) and is driving slower than the red.. Whatever.. the red car catches up to them and is going to the left(From his original perspective), but the blue car that enters from the top is going straight through.
What am I missing here? There HAS to be something more to this that I'm not catching here, because this seems to be designed to cause carnage.
Is the blue car entering from the top, even though they are in the outside lane, supposed to wait until all traffic in all lanes is clear before entering?
this would make sense, and the road markings seem to indicate that the right lane MUST turn right.. But allowing that lane to go straight.. I don't see how this works.
The car coming in from 6:00 o'clock has to drive half-way around the circle before he gets to the car coming in at 12:00 o'clock. The car entering at 12:00 o'clock needs only to cross two lanes to be out of the way of any car who wants the 9:00 o'clock exit. Even at a walking pace, he should be able to do that before the 6:00 o'clock car comes around! The only way the 6:00 o'clock car is catching up to him is if he stalls out!
Edited to add: Here's a street view image from an actual rotary that I use several times per week. https://goo.gl/maps/oqnakTmmYAn
Last edited by CoastalMaineiac; 09-04-2018 at 09:26 AM..
I understand how it's supposed to work, but I still think it's stupid and not intuitive. If I want to turn left I'm supposed to get in the inside lane, drive around the circle and then turn across the outside lane to exit, and hope no one is in that lane?
Nope, not going to do it. The exits are on the outside, so I'm going to stay in the outside lane and ride it around to wherever I'm getting off, no matter which exit it is. I will never get in the inside lane of a multi-lane roundabout if I can help it.
And just for good measure, I think I'll start coming to a complete stop before entering roundabouts from now on, regardless of whether there are any vehicles in it or not. Only after making sure there are no vehicles either in the roundabout or approaching it from any other direction will I proceed.
So you think it is stupid and counter-intuitive to make left-hand turns from the left-hand lane? You need to surrender your driver's license; you are a menace to everyone else on the road if you actually drive this way! If there are multiple-lane exits, the driver exiting the roundabout from the inside lane is not the one crossing over lanes, the driver on the outside lane trying to keep driving around the circle is the one crossing over lanes. The right lane in that case is an exit only lane. The left lane has the option of exiting or continuing around.
There is writing in each lane going into the multi lane roundabout showing the name of the exit street it corresponds to? No. There isn't.
I don't know how I can explain this any clearer.
Imagine yourself driving into a roundabout.
Imagine you need to go onto Peterson street.
Imagine you do not know whether Peterson is the first right, the second right, or the third right.
You do not have an overhead view of the roundabout.
How do you know which lane to be in?
You get in the far left lane and circle around until you figure it out.
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