roundabouts

zoey

Are you allowed to enter a roundabout when you know traffic is stopped on the exit you want to take and therefore in doing so you are blocking other entries/exits? For example:


A roundabout coming out of a town at 5.00pm.
There are 4 entries/exits.
Almost all the traffic enters the roundabout via one entry to exit via the exit straight ahead.
They all follow each other on to the roundabout bumper to bumper and traffic comes to a standstill. Therefore one entry/exit is completely blocked so anyone trying to use them has to wait to someone leaves a gap for them to enter/exit.

mickdw

There is sometimes a yellow box painted at the area which should be always left clear... this is the area where the cars cross paths.
Either way, common sense would say that drivers should leave a gap if in a queue allowing cars to stay moving in other routes.

dudara

I was always of the understanding that you treat a roundabout like a junction - i.e. you do not enter it unless you can exit it.

However, try to sit behind the white line at a roundabout while waiting for the way ahead to clear - you'll be blasted out of it and every other driver will pile onto the roundabout bocking you.

At the very least, leave the exit/entry points clear.

zoey

dudara wrote: »

I was always of the understanding that you treat a roundabout like a junction - i.e. you do not enter it unless you can exit it.

Yeah I would have thought that aswell.
Would I be correct in saying that there is not actually a rule of the road stating this?
Is it an offence to block an entry/exit? I mean it is frustrating enough for "normal" drivers but what if an emergency vehicle needed to get through?

antomorro-sei

dudara wrote: »

I was always of the understanding that you treat a roundabout like a junction - i.e. you do not enter it unless you can exit it.

However, try to sit behind the white line at a roundabout while waiting for the way ahead to clear - you'll be blasted out of it and every other driver will pile onto the roundabout bocking you.

Aye, when that happens to me, window rolls down, hand goes out and start making "gestures" to the peoples behind who are beeping

stealthyspeeder

In your example, lets assume the blocked exit (say 2nd or 3rd exit from you) is the most used exit (basically the one where the majority of traffic wants to go), the problem with not moving onto the roundabout (until the exit is clear) is that the busy exit will probably not become clear for a quite a while as the next exit/entrance will probably have have cars moving onto the roundabout and getting held up at the busy exit. However if you were to move forward yourself, you have right of way over these cars.

If everyone stuck to the no entrance to the roundabout unless exit is clear (and obviously giving right of way to veicles on the roundabout) then it would work grand. However this is not always practical on large roundabouts where your exit is not visable. So if one rule doesnt cover all, it would not make sense to apply it blanketly to all roundabouts. as far as im aware, and im open to correction on this, the only rule is giving way to traffic already on the roundabout.