Round-A-Bouts

You can't legally switch lanes in the middle of a Round-A-Bout! !@#$!

What's really annoying is when someone wanders from lane to lane (either on their cell phone or not)! Hello! Ever hear of other people on the road driving right next to you!

If you're entering a round-a-bout you can't just decide you don't want to and cut off other people in the lanes not going to the round about! You have to go around the round-a-bout and exit in the proper lane. Ohhhh you want to honk at me because of your mistake... well f!#@ you!

Grrrrrrrr......

That is all. Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

I hate when people do not use their signal lights. Why am I supposed to know you were going to come into my lane all of a sudden?! I hate when people are driving too close to me. If I am in the middle lane and the person in front of me is driving slow why are you riding tail like that?! Dude stay in your lane! I am sorry you don't feel comfortable driving next to the divider. Lady, you almost hit my car because you were concentrating on your ice cream cone while pulling out of your parking spot. Yeah, I drive in NYC.

Try driving in Winnipeg. Hey City, how about painting some lines??!

Ermahgerd! Roads curves slightly one way and then slightly another. Must slow down by 25 mph.

Drives a V8 Hemi. Creep rolls away from traffic lights.

Get up to speed limit, take foot off gas, slow by 10 mph, speed back up. Repeat.

Semis that run a stop sign to turn onto the highway in front of you. And then take the next four miles to get up to 55 mph -- and the highway is constant small hills, so there is nowhere it is safe to pass a tractor-trailer. And then the instant you DO pass them, they want to drive 15 over the limit, so the next 10 miles all you can see in your rear view mirror is the grille of a Freightliner.

People that see you coming, pull out in front of you close enough you have to lock up the brakes to avoid giving them a Chevrolet suppository, and then 1/4 mile down the road, they make a left turn. (I cannot tell you how many times this happens to me on my commute)

People that tailgate you so closely you can't see their headlights, and don't get the hint despite repeated brake checks (when you can see the tire smoke coming from their front end, you know they had to slam on 'em)

People that speed up behind you until you can tell what color lipstick the driver is wearing, and then hang right behind you. You speed up, they speed up. You slow down, they slow down. You finally have to slow down to 35 to get them to pass you, and then they have the nerve to flip YOU off.

And one of my all-time pet peeves, especially on long road trips: People that drive the speed limit until you pass them (driving ~7 over the limit) and then they speed up and drive two car lengths behind you. Listen buddy, if you don't have the balls to speed a little bit on your own, don't $%@!#$%'n ride my coattails when I do. And I hope if a trooper does turn on us, he pulls YOU over since you're the car in back that he gets to first.

ShootsNRoots said:

You can't legally switch lanes in the middle of a Round-A-Bout! !@#$!

What's really annoying is when someone wanders from lane to lane (either on their cell phone or not)! Hello! Ever hear of other people on the road driving right next to you!

If you're entering a round-a-bout you can't just decide you don't want to and cut off other people in the lanes not going to the round about! You have to go around the round-a-bout and exit in the proper lane. Ohhhh you want to honk at me because of your mistake... well f!#@ you!

Grrrrrrrr......

That is all. Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

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Hahaha. I had that happen to me on my way home with the kids after getting dinner (3 roundabouts by my house all on the same road). Moron came into my lane as I was going left around it (inner lane) and they were going straight, which you can be in either lane for... needless to say, my kids were lectured on how to drive around one at their young ages as to not be one of those arse-hats haha. My 5yr old says "so only you and mommy know how to go around one?" Haha. Yes son, yes haha

Actually you can shift lanes in a round about. If you are on the inside lane, you may switch to the outside lane to make your left hand turn or to go straight through. Only stay on the right lane if you are turning an immediate right turn.

Of course, single lane round-abouts correct this.

Or the ones you see at a stop sign some 4 blocks away, they have all the time in the world to go, but they wait till just past the last moment to pull out.

And the drunk drivers. I ain't a hardass on that stuff. A beer or two, some drinks at dinner, but you're under the limit, fine. These jackasses though who can't hold their lane or even to the whole road and make it dangerous to pass, F them. I nearly wiped out not long ago when some drunk crashed all over the road and caused a multi car pile up.

Actually you can shift lanes in a round about. If you are on the inside lane, you may switch to the outside lane to make your left hand turn or to go straight through. Only stay on the right lane if you are turning an immediate right turn.

Of course, single lane round-abouts correct this.

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Ummm... no you can't switch lanes. What you say doesn't even make sense.

Reference any state DOT website.

There are a few key things to remember about driving roundabouts:
Yield to drivers in the roundabout
Stay in your lane; do not change lanes
Do not stop in the roundabout
Avoid driving next to oversize vehicles

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http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/safety/roundabouts/

ShootsNRoots said:

Ummm... no you can't switch lanes. What you say doesn't even make sense.

Reference any state DOT website.



http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/safety/roundabouts/

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We don't have many roundabouts here in Montana, the few we do have only have 1 lane & the speed limit is 15mph. Now if you have a roundabout with 2 lanes (inner & outer), and you can't legally change lanes, how do you get to the inner lane, but more importantly, how do you get OUT of the roundabout?
I don't mean to sound like a complete idiot, but this is a valid question. We don't have much experience with those new-fangled, big city things, they confuse our horses.
Regards, GF.

We don't have many roundabouts here in Montana, the few we do have only have 1 lane & the speed limit is 15mph. Now if you have a roundabout with 2 lanes (inner & outer), and you can't legally change lanes, how do you get to the inner lane, but more importantly, how do you get OUT of the roundabout?
I don't mean to sound like a complete idiot, but this is a valid question. We don't have much experience with those new-fangled, big city things, they confuse our horses.
Regards, GF.

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You choose the appropriate lane when entering the round-a-bout in a 2 or more lane round-a-bout. When they first put in all of the multi-lane round-a-bouts here there were numerous accidents because people kept wanting to switch from the inner to the outer lane within the round-a-bout. The outer lane gave access to the highway. Now people are used to it and they use the appropriate lane, even if there's a line of cars in that lane. Of course you still get people who wander from lane to lane within the roundabout because they're on their cell-phone or aren't paying attention or just haven't driven in a round-about.

Exiting a multi-lane round-a-bout does not consist of switching lanes.

Reference this guide from the Wisconsin DOT (the second page would be the info you're after):

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/safety/motorist/roaddesign/roundabouts/docs/rab-brochure.pdf

A real kicker is when you see an older driver pull up to the roundabout and they literally turn left in the roundabout (against the flow of traffic). Obviously they're scared and don't know what to do when they come upon the roundabout. This has caused numerous accidents as well.

Round abouts in London are the worst.
Nevermind that you are driving in what we know as the passenger seat, but they have massive roundabouts where you can get stuck in the inner lane for several laps around before there is a small window to shoot back onto the motorway.

We call them rotaries

ShootsNRoots said:

You choose the appropriate lane when entering the round-a-bout in a 2 or more lane round-a-bout. When they first put in all of the multi-lane round-a-bouts here there were numerous accidents because people kept wanting to switch from the inner to the outer lane within the round-a-bout. The outer lane gave access to the highway. Now people are used to it and they use the appropriate lane, even if there's a line of cars in that lane. Of course you still get people who wander from lane to lane within the roundabout because they're on their cell-phone or aren't paying attention or just haven't driven in a round-about.

Exiting a multi-lane round-a-bout does not consist of switching lanes.


.

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Sounds like changing lanes to me if you are on the inside lane and exit out. You cross the lane. That's changing lanes. Sorry. You are arguing one thing and saying another.

landshark said:

Sounds like changing lanes to me if you are on the inside lane and exit out. You cross the lane. That's changing lanes. Sorry. You are arguing one thing and saying another.

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Look at the link he provided, it makes a lot more sense then.

Roundabouts are awesome! What I hate are drivers that don't understand how to use them. I lived in Spain for 4 years and the stop and go traffic here pains me greatly.

Do y'all mean traffic circles?

and I really like that this illustration shows what the turn-signal action is that one should take in a roundabout.

Jacob_Marley said:

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We've a few around here in neighborhoods, but if they were in that busy of an intersection, it'd take a helicopter to clear out the wreckage.

A type of roundabout called a "magic roundabout" in Britain.

How does one negotiate this roundabout in the winter when the markings are covered with snow?
Is that an Airship mooring mast in the center?
Does this roundabout contain spots for military naval vessels?
Is wagering by pedestrian observers permitted?
And just how many pubs are adjacent to this roundabout?

I F&$@ing HATE roundabouts!!!!!

The city I grew up in has been constantly taking out perfectly good signal lights and 4-way stops and replacing them with roundabouts. It all started where two streets came into another street about 30 feet apart. That one made sense. The rest are just asinine!!! I think there are 10 roundabouts now with plans for like 20 more. Infuriating!!!

landshark said:

Sounds like changing lanes to me if you are on the inside lane and exit out. You cross the lane. That's changing lanes. Sorry. You are arguing one thing and saying another.

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I know the sitebsaysbdont change lanes, but the image from the site shows the lane change. If there were no other cars in the roundabout, I could see your arguement. However, the point of the roundabout is to allow access to vehicles coming from more than one direction.

The car in the image is unequivocally changing from the inner lane in the roundabout to the outer one to exit.

There's an electronic message board that's outside a roundabout that I drive through once a week. It says "Cars must yield to traffic in the roundabout. It's the law."

Apparently that needs explaining around here.

Actually, wikipedia:"roundabout" explains all of this including who yields to whom, whether lane changes and/or crossing a lane are allowed and under what circumstances; and the differences including common rules between "roundabouts", "traffic circles" and "rotaries".
It also gives a link to the very exciting Roundabout Appreciation Society in Britain, a group that is dedicated to discussion of the architecture of roundabouts, including their design and safety features, as well as the approaches people take when driving towards and around a roundabout, and the wildlife present on some of the larger junctions.
Very exciting.

Grannyknot said:

Round abouts in London are the worst.
Nevermind that you are driving in what we know as the passenger seat, but they have massive roundabouts where you can get stuck in the inner lane for several laps around before there is a small window to shoot back onto the motorway.

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Look kids, Big Ben!

Roundabouts are flat out retarded. I'm glad we don't have many in the Phoenix area.

I've seen a couple that have been designed really well. 90% of what I see them used for (in the US) is a really bad application. Then every once in a while I see someone use a signaled T-intersection when a roundabout would have worked better.

Back when I designed facilities, I had an architect demand I put one at a facility because it would "look good." I pointed out that there was not an intersection, just an elbow in the road. He insisted I put it there anyway.

Then the U of U has a light rail line that runs through the middle of a roundabout. It forces all traffic in and out of the roundabout to stop for the train every 15 minutes.