Do you know how to navigate a circle/roundabout?
If you’ve been driving for any amount of time (or at the very least obtained a legal driver’s license, not a lucky-packet one or one you paid the guy under the counter for) you should know this basic concept.
Yet, many, many people (shock, horror) actually don’t or as I tend to believe (and feel at the time) don’t care about.
Just this morning I was almost taken out by a traffic officer (no less) who was travelling into and around one of the roundabouts in town (in the same direction as myself, and to my left). He completely disregarded the use of his indicator lights to denote to the rest of us that he was changing lanes and just eased over into the middle lane (yes there are 3 around the roundabouts in the CBD) which I was actually travelling in alongside him.
This is the one thing that irks me about 90% of drivers that simply cannot comprehend how to drive around a roundabout nor know when they need to exit and how to exit.
More times than I can count, I’ve encountered drivers who are in the left-most lane, who wish to pass an exit to carry on to the next one (or worse, go right around and take the exit they actually entered the roundabout) and at the same time, some idiot in the right-most (inner) lane wishing to take the very exit that other said driver is not exiting on, while in the left lane.
Click image to read the mini-guide
Now, instead of me drilling down into the finer points of navigating a traffic circle/roundabout, I’ll rather lead you to Baldricman’s carefully crafted (and humourous) Traffic Circles for Dummies guide. And before anyone tries to criticise either one of us that these are merely our own perceptions of how one should drive and not the legal ways, think again as he has provided relevant links to these.
Now, where’s my high-blood pressure medication so that I can get my heart-rate down again?
Tags: circle, driving, idiots, ramblings, rant, roundabout, traffic, traffic circle
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hehe, thanks for the referral Deems. I’ve tried to keep mine down to principles, so I don’t really have much on the lane-changing stuff that vexes to many – unfortunately there isn’t clear legislation on this specific topic either, so common sense must rule (*snigger* like THAT will ever happen….)
You’re welcome – we can hope, can’t we (about common sense) – I’m going to my happy place, I’m going to my happy place.
About time too! This book is definitely required in Britain. You get so many morons over here trying to negotiate roundabouts it’s unbelievable. Over here we have the Highway Code which not many people bother to read that governs how to drive. Good post.
If only it were a real book and you were forced to read and comprehend its contents to successfully obtain a driver’s license. *sigh*
Arghhh! I was in one of these last week and was almost broadsided by someone not paying attention. I hate these things!
They can work really well if people know and understand how to use them – they can ensure traffic flow – it doesn’t help when people don’t know how to use them or when (like in our case in the CBD of Cape Town) they put traffic lights at each of the traffic circle intersections (defeats the purpose in my mind).