Roundabouts .... why can't people use them?????

HelterSkelter

What happens if you are on a roundabout with more than 4 exits e.g. Walkinsown roundabout (see link below). How are you supposed to indicate on that? I will always indicate right if I am taking an exit which is to the right of the straight ahead exit (make sense?!). For example coming down Greenhills Road towards town, if I am taking Cromwellsfort Road or St Peters Road I will indicate right.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=walkinstown&ll=53.316954,-6.333661&spn=0.005845,0.013902&hl=en

Jumpy

ravenhead wrote:

Ok this is a bit of a rant but I'm really fumming!!
Why can't people use roundabouts correctly!! It's really wrecking my head! You queue all the way around the roundabout only to have this really ignorant driver come up the outside of you & expect to be let in!!

Coming to work this morning was REALLY bad ... I'm going to postal one of these days!!
These drivers are SO SO SO ignorant, they stare at you as if you're the one that's in the wrong & that you should stop your car & let them in, I'm so sick of it ....

Ok rant over!!!

Im actually laughing at you here. You are a prime example of the untrained roundabout user.

I hate to break this news to you, but if its a two lane roundabout and the exit is a single lane directly ahead and both onbound lanes have the reversed triangle then BOTH lanes have the right to merge into the exit. The reason that they stare at you as if you are in the wrong is because you ARE in the wrong.

Besides...how are you to know that they did not come from the previous entrance to the one you left from and are turning right? Therefore the ONLY lane they can use is the lane central to the roundabout hub. Its very dangerous to merge on the roundabout and if traffic is heavy you will block the central lane if you even try. Therefore the only place to merge is the single lane exit (which if you arent too ignorant to notice ALWAYS has a widened area for merging traffic)

I am also from Limerick and its ignorant gits like you that always make my blood boil when I am coming from the Dublin side of the Cork/Dublin roundabout and turning up to the Childers road. You always assume that I am shortcutting from the Cork side as opposed to the ONLY way I can exit from the Dublin side. :mad:

Jumpy

ravenhead wrote:

This is the one & only time you can stay in the left lane when going straight - the round about also has to have two lanes coming off the round about.

It does not.

The only time that you MUST be in the left hand lane to go straight is if the other lane is marked with a right turn only arrow.

In a lot of cases you may have noticed that the council has put only a single reversed triangle on the roundabout entrance even on a roundabout that can fit two cars abreast. For anyone in Limerick the Kilmurray Lodge Roundabout is a prime example. It looks like a two lane roundabout...but its road symbols mark it as a single lane roundabout. Everyone still uses it as a dual lane though.

Jumpy

Just to clarify...I think if you do go straight on from the hub lane on a two laner off onto a one laner you are still a knobjockey, but I wouldnt barrel someone onto the wrong side of the road because of it.
In any case where someone tries it (by all means shake your fist) but "merge like a zipper" so you dont end up killing someone.

faigs

My girlfriend is learning and she uses them perfectly, better than most qualified drivers. Although she did have a good teacher

People are just too lazy to indicate.

Type 17

Whenever a topic about roundabouts comes up, there are always arguments over lane usage and indicating, etc.

Now, at last, we can all study an animated pic to see how things should be done:


Notes:
Pick a car as it enters, and see what lanes it uses, and when it indicates - there is a different coloured car for each possible combination.
Most Irish r/bouts don't have three entry lanes - for two-lane entry, you should assume that cars in the left and centre lanes are in the same lane.
For r/bouts with more than 4 roads on them, you should treat the 4th and subsequent exits in the same way as the third exit, regarding indicating and lane-choice.

I saw this pic on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

Note that there is a comment in the Trivia section near the bottom about the Kinsale Road Roundabout in Cork (it's bad enough to merit it!)

"The Kinsale Road Roundabout in Cork, Ireland is a very large and irregularly shaped, three lane, signal controlled roundabout. The roundabout is situated on the N25 southern ring road dual carriageway, at the intersection with a dual-carriageway to the city centre, a road to Bishopstown, and the airport or Kinsale road. With the huge traffic volumes at the intersection, the dangerous and difficult navigation of the roundabout has given rise to the "Magic Roundabout" nickname. This roundabout is scheduled to be replaced with a grade separated junction in 2006."

AMurphy

The Kinsale Road Roundabout in Cork, Ireland is a very large and irregularly shaped, three lane, signal controlled roundabout. The roundabout is situated on the N25 southern ring road dual carriageway, at the intersection with a dual-carriageway to the city centre, a road to Bishopstown, and the airport or Kinsale road. With the huge traffic volumes at the intersection, the dangerous and difficult navigation of the roundabout has given rise to the "Magic Roundabout" nickname. This roundabout is scheduled to be replaced with a grade separated junction in 2006."

I know that one and a couple more like it on the M50, near the Lucan exit, I think, should be bombed.

regarding that illustration, sure if that little display was peak hours traffic, we'ed have nothing to talk about, but that is not the case. Run the same demo with peak traffic jam time traffic and you have 3 solid lines of traffic trying tin intersect with 3 others and what to you get.... mayhem, plain and simple. Add about 20 more cars to the demo and see what happens?.
Add a few artics which take up two lanes as they circulate...
then add a few White Van Mans and have them follow the yellow cr at teh enty and the blue car to make the first left exit, which is what is often done.


Another thing, take the yellow car entering from the screen left in the center or the road lane. Why does he stop, if there was anything (me) behind him, he'd be nailed, inapropriate stopping is another reason why these things DO NOT work.

Kersh

Thats a class little animation, but you forgot to put in the boyracer, in his starlet, who approaches from the shallowest angle on the left, clips the kerb on the inside with his 'allys' , dips the clutch for the whoosh, and cuts across all the exit lanes.... I hate them....:mad:
Oh, and no indicators.

mike65

That graphics a joke - I've been watching for 10 mins and there's has'nt been a near miss, never mind a crash!

Good to see the Kinsale rd roundabout is getting global attention, though I think its barbarity is overstated tbh.

Mike.

Type 17

AMurphy wrote:

Another thing, take the yellow car entering from the screen left in the center or the road lane. Why does he stop, if there was anything (me) behind him, he'd be nailed, inapropriate stopping is another reason why these things DO NOT work.

He stops because if he didn't, he'd hit the blue car coming up from the bottom - lucky you weren't driving the yellow car, or you'd have lost your No Claims Bonus (game over! )

PS: He should stop because the blue car has entered the r/bout before him, but in reality, it may well be possible to enter anyway, depending on the speed of the blue car/size of the r/bout.

Lump Basher

HelterSkelter wrote:

What happens if you are on a roundabout with more than 4 exits

The rule is that you take the right-hand lane if you are going more than halfway around - not the "3rd exit", as the right-hand lane for "3rd exit" doesn't/can't apply to all roundabouts.

Silvera

I agree that the Walkinstown Roundabout is very "challenging" ....... I worked in a garage close to it for 6 months and had to negotiate it (in different cars each time) every day.

...though the roundabouts in Crk come a close second!

That animation is excellent !!
(I was just about to post it here).

Now why can't we have ads like that on tv ?

Oh I forgot, because the National Safety Council is underfunded, thats why :mad:

AMurphy

Type 17 wrote:

He stops because if he didn't, he'd hit the blue car coming up from the bottom - lucky you weren't driving the yellow car, or you'd have lost your No Claims Bonus (game over! )

PS: He should stop because the blue car has entered the r/bout before him, but in reality, it may well be possible to enter anyway, depending on the speed of the blue car/size of the r/bout.

What blue car, it;s phukkin miles away and traveling like a snail,
Hence the beauty of a V6 or V8 and good acceleration......sans indicator I might suggest.
Frankly, I find the best way through these things is treat them as an obstacle course, not as a traffic management method.
Bomb targets....:D

Lump Basher

AMurphy wrote:

What blue car, it;s phukkin miles away and traveling like a snail,
Hence the beauty of a V6 or V8 and good acceleration......sans indicator I might suggest.

Dude - its a flash animation - get over yourself, and your gay 80's boxcar.

If the car in your sig is yours, then I'd prefer any of the animated cars... Such a babe mobile:

Drag00n79

I had my scariest moment on a roundabout on one going into Sligo over the summer when some nutter drove right through it anti-clockwise. Luckily for him I was the only other car on it at the time.

AMurphy

Lump Basher wrote:

Dude - its a flash animation - get over yourself, and your gay 80's boxcar.

If the car in your sig is yours, then I'd prefer any of the animated cars... Such a babe mobile:

Even got the correct hubcaps, cheers mate.