Roundabout etiquette and beeping taxi driver

n.d.os

Today I'm questioning my roundabout etiquette and if I have perhaps missed a vital rule when joining a roundabout.

Yesterday I was waiting at the 6oclock point on a roundabout, in the right lane, indicating to travel around and exit at 3 o'clock.

The roundabout was busy and at various points where there were cars coming from the right, I felt it was unsafe to join the roundabout.

On two occasions when no cars were on the roundabout coming from my right but cars were stopped or yielding at 3 o'clock, I still felt it was unsafe to join and the window was too narrow for me if a car joined the roundabout from 3 o'clock. In my opinion a smash was likely at 6 o'clock if both cars joined simultaneously.

Behind me was a taxi driver blaring his horn and shouting out the window, "there's no cars on the roundabout." He would do this at any point where there were no cars coming from 12 o'clock but wasn't considering the very narrow window, and cars yielding or stopped at 3 o'clock which was only a few metres away from my car.

I'm a confident driver, I was at the roundabout for maybe 30 seconds and even if I was being overly cautious which I wasn't, I don't believe I was delaying anyone behind me.

What are the specific rules for traffic coming from the right? If there are no cars on the roundabout coming from the right but cars stopped or yielding to my right and 3 o'clock, should they continue to have right of way until it is safe for me to join the roundabout or should I step on it and launch myself across in the narrow window before they join?

I can see his side of things and possibly why he was aggravated, but there is generally nothing I could do to move any faster. Feeling a little bit fragile as I was coming out of a children's hospital, not that he knew that.

fatbhoy

Newsflash, you were being overly cautious. You yield to cars that are on the roundabout and approaching, but you don't yield to cars stopped at earlier entrances/exits because that's ridiculous.

timetogo1

If somebody joined at 3 and you joined at 6 you were anticipating a crash?

Unless they were rocketing up to the entry with no capability of stopping it sounds like you were doing it wrong.

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058311587/roundabout-etiquette-and-beeping-taxi-driver

I still felt it was unsafe to join and the window was too narrow for me if a car joined the roundabout from 3 o'clock. In my opinion a smash was likely at 6 o'clock if both cars joined simultaneously

How small is this roundabout that two cars entering from different entrances at the same time can hit each other? Unless the roundabout is tiny (e.g. a drop of paint on the road, as you sometimes find in housing estates), then yes, it does sound like you were too cautious. However, that doesn't give the taxi driver the right to be abusive

Stark

Cars coming from the right don't have right of way until they're actually on the roundabout. That said, you regularly encounter the aggressive pricks who will charge onto the roundabout without slowing down enough to brake for traffic on the roundabout so some bit of defensive driving is needed. Hard to judge in this situation since I wasn't there and taxi drivers aren't exactly known for their patience either so hard to know if you were being overly cautious/defensive or the right amount.

n.d.os

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050103#Comment_121050103

Yeah. I do see his point, hence why I just wanted to check up on it but as another poster mentioned about, cars do tend to charge onto roundabouts from 3 o'clock and I judged the window as being too small whether I was right or wrong. If they are looking to their own right while joining, there is the worry that they won't see me. I know I'm right to make my own judgement on it and he shouldn't be beeping but just thought I'd check the rules on it as it's something I will consider in the future. I think a lot of the problem with roundabouts is cars yielding at 3 o'clock instead of stopping. It makes the window a bit unpredictable for cars joining at 6 o'clock.

liamog

The nearest roundabout experience I can think of that sounds similar to OP is the roundabout in Lucan Village. https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3590668,-6.4457677,58m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

Coming down Chapel Hill you will often approach the roundabout with car's queuing over Lucan Bridge. If you sat at the entrance to the roundabout instead of entering it you'd be waiting all day to get through. Helpfully they've added yellow boxes to the roundabout, in this case you'd enter the roundabout and stop on it making sure that traffic from Lucan Village can pass in front of your car, and that traffic from Lucan Bridge can pass behind your car to go to Lucan Village. If a roundabout doesn't have yellow boxes on it I'd still generally do the same if my exit was blocked. Enter the roundabout but leave enough space for a car entering to pass in front of you if they aren't taking your exit.

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050159#Comment_121050159

Not sure about Ireland, but in the another EU country I am from, if you don't use a gap to join traffic, you get an error in the driving test. It is considered not being able to judge the gap, other vehicle's speed and your ability to join. So being overly cautious is also not a good idea. It all about adapting to the traffic situation.

n.d.os

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050260#Comment_121050260

I

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050260#Comment_121050260

At no point was everything completed stopped to my right so definitely not being overly cautious. Really I was just judging the windows of other cars arriving at 6 o'clock. I'll give it another go later. Back there this evening. 😄

Citrus_8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050325#Comment_121050325

Make a video and upload here. Would be much easier to judge. Some things can be told million of time, but rather seen.

Cookiemunster

You were being over cautious. If the traffic at 3 o'clock hasn't entered the RAB and there isn't anything coming from before that, then you should be entering it. If everybody waited for every other car on a RAB to be stationary then nobody would go anywhere.

Oscar_Madison

It sounds like a bit of over caution to be honest but it doesn’t necessitate a honking driver behind you - I see it all the time and if I honked every time it happened I’d probably need a new car horn at this stage - some people are just frightened of roundabouts.

Next time ease gently onto the roundabout-there’s nothing coming from your right so no one is going to smash into you - there’s obviously an obstruction between 12 and 3 so you don’t want to be pulling off aggressively only to then slam on the brakes at 12 which I think is your fear here.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058311587/roundabout-etiquette-and-beeping-taxi-driver

You put ‘etiquette’ and ‘taxi driver’ in the same sentence.

Bwaaaahaaaahaa.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050103#Comment_121050103

The taxi driver was behind him, not blasting on to the roundabout. While that does happen, OP was not proceeding because there were cars stopped at the entry to his right. That's excessive, especially on a larger roundabout.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121050172#Comment_121050172

That's a tiny roundabout, with only roads. Sounds like OP was in a two lane road, so a much bigger roundabout. And it wasn't the exit that was block, but cars stopped at the entry at 3 of clock.

Moose1

I wouldn't overthink it - in the situation, at that time on that particular roundabout you took caution over "making progress".

On another day you may act differently and take the opportunity that presents itself.

No one was overly inconvenienced or crash cause so all good.

CramCycle

You would have got a mark against you for failing to make progress on your driving test. It may not have felt safe but if they were not on the roundabout and had stopped/yielded, then they don't sound like they were any risk to you or anyone else in this situation. Even if they had started moving at the same time as you, unless they floored it, there was no genuine risk to progressing based on your description.

trellheim

Always difficult the first few times... and then there's the Walkinstown roundabout or Yeehaw central aka

BrianD3

The taxi driver is technically right - you don't yield to cars unless they are already on the roundabout. However given the incorrect way that people use roundabouts (including blasting through them thinking that they only have to pay attention to traffic coming from THEIR right) then it is wise to be cautious. If you are waiting at 6 o'clock and someone else is waiting at 3 o'clock and he spots a gap to his right, he may enter the roundabout like he's starting an F1 Grand Prix. Unless you are confident that you can get on safely ahead of him no matter how hard he accelerates, I would tend to wait. Easy for a taxi driver behind to blast you out of it, he's not the one who will have someone driving into his driver's door.

I would make a comparison with yielding to pedestrians who are approaching or loitering in the vicinity of a zebra crossing. You don't have to yield to them until they have already set foot on the crossing and they are not supposed to set foot on the crossing if it would cause you to brake. Are you going to take a chance that this will go in your favour? The wise option is to stop if you see a pedestrian who looks like they are going to step onto a zebra crossing in the next few seconds.

Saw a tip at a roundabout recently, car at roundabout came to a complete stop even though there was no car to the right on the roundabout, driver behind rear ended the car in front. Of course the driver behind is at fault for not staying a safe breaking distance behind, but it was the idiot in front who contributed greatly to the crash by not joining when there was no one on the roundabout. I felt bad for the driver behind.

JeffKenna

Probably should have moved out based on what you said but then it can be hard depending on the roundabout.

Small enough roundabout in cork city I use I always have to give way to cars coming from the right that aren't yet even on the roundabout. They have a view of the traffic coming up to the roundabout along with a straight road so they tend to accelerate coming onto the roundabout.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121051938#Comment_121051938

Grrrrrrrrrrh

road_high

Nothing does my head in more than ditherers at roundabouts- the whole point of them is to keep the traffic flowing- you keep moving through (cautiously but not like a snail) so long as there’s nothing on the roundabout or proceeding from the right. I can’t stand drivers that automatically stop regardless