Coolcower Roundabout - Correct Lane?

eeepaulo

On approach from the cork side you have the above sign, which is telling me to be in the right lane to go towards tralee. Is that sign suggesting right hand lane on approach or on roundabout?

There is only one lane onto the round about from cork (road coming from bottom of picture with the lorry exiting towards cork) there are 2 lanes on the roundabout and 2 lanes exiting towards tralee, which is where the confusion is coming from, I've gone through a few dozen times and would guess about 1 in 4 people are using the left lane on the roundabout to head towards tralee, 3 in 4 the right lane, most of the people in the right lane are moving across to the left lane as they exit the roundabout onto the tralee road.

In my head you always follow the road signage and can not be expected to see how many exits are on the other side of a roundabout without prior knowledge so right hand lane on roundabout. But then should i be exiting onto the righthand lane?

Arnout

I've always found these type of roundabouts confusing. If there are two lanes exiting, you can stick to them (and unfortunately not everyone does), but if there's only one (like the other three exits in your aerial photo) when do you move from the right lane to the left lane? Do you use the right lane initially only if you want to go to the third exit or also to the second exit (also depending on how much traffic is aiming for the first exit)?

That's one reason the Netherlands (where I come from) have introduced so-called 'turbo roundabouts'. Confusing at first, but when you've figured them out they work great. Of course there's still downsides to these: not everybody is able to figure them out and also you usually can't go full circle on them if you need to turn around (after taking a wrong turn, for instance), without a very awkward lanechange. But in general traffic already gets sorted properly ahead of entering the roundabout.

denismc

The sign doesn't seem to match the actual junction, the sign shows 3 exits but the photo shows only 2, one for Macroom and one for Tralee!

eeepaulo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120115732#Comment_120115732

The road coming to the bottom left is a local access road

_Kaiser_

If exiting for Tralee, you should be in the inner/right lane of the roundabout until you pass the Macroom exit at which point you check/indicate/move left onto that Tralee exit.

If exiting at that local road or Macroom, use the left lane.

cpoh1

Having driven the roundabout a number of times now there is only one lane on and if heading for the new bypass you are taking the 12 o'clock exit so stay in the left hand outer lane of the roundabout.

Drdenise75

Don't think so. The bypass/Tralee exit isn't at 12 o'clock. It's not quite 3 o'clock but definitely closer to 3 than 12! I think the macroom exit is the true 12 o'clock

eeepaulo

The sign post takes priority over any physical characteristic though?

At the moment you can see the exit, but if they build it up and put some flowers and trees in the middle you would not know which lane on the roundabout to use until nearly at the exit.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120120552#Comment_120120552

Rightly or wrongly I never take the 12 o'clock / 3 o'clock exit location too literally as every roundabout is slightly different design. Instead I go with exit numbers, 1st exit left lane and left indicator. 2nd exit left lane no indicator until past 1st exit. 3rd and subsequent exit right lane and right indicator until past the exit prior to the one I'm taking then left indicator and left lane. May not be technically correct but it works for me irrespective of the roundabout design unless there are road markings to override this standard approach

standardg60

Technically you'd use the right lane op, but here it doesn't really matter which because there's only one lane on from Cork you won't have anyone in the adjoining lane.

If coming from Tralee though there are two lanes on so if you were heading for macroom you'd definitely use the right lane