Help with Roundabouts

Hi, new member here, diagnosed this week... and my lifelong job of 30+years has been amongst other things to try to make roundabouts work more efficiently! Some of my key roles in traffic engineering are to try not to ask too much of drivers using the road network, to try and make junctions as intuitive as they can be and to try not to overload drivers with signs and other often confusing or unhelpful information!

Simple one- or two-lane roundabouts should be fairly elementary in principle if you follow the rules and guidance of the highway code. It should be quite straightforward to decide in good time which approach lane you should enter in and provided you follow a similar line around the roundabout itself, you should get out unscathed.

To allay some of your fears though, it would be well worth asking your instructor to focus some of your lesson time travelling through roundabouts that commonly form part of test routes, (a) to fully familiarise yourself with the layout, (b) to try and acclimatise with yours and other drivers' speeds so that you can judge your approach speed and merge safely into the circulatory flow without necessarily having to come to a complete stop, and (c) to identify other drivers' bad habits which might spook you from time to time.

Larger roundabouts with spiral lane markings should be just as strightforward if (big, BIG IF!) they're designed properly! Again, as Katy says, if you choose the correct entry lane and religiously follow it throughout the junction, you should end up exactly where you intend to!  One massive problem is that the bigger the roundabout is, the more counter-intuitive some of the movements begin to appear. There's one near me where you have to keep to the left pretty much all the way around the roundabout to turn right - try not to let that phase you if that is the instruction the various signs and markings have given you - the lane should take you where you want to go.

Maybe get an aerial view printout of the roundabout complete with all the road markings etc off Google maps, get some coloured marker pens and trace every directional movement from each approach. You might just get a clearer idea of exactly what positioning you should take ag any given point - it might also identify any deficiencies in the road marking design which could catch you or any other driver out.

A lot of it is practice but you should jump at any opportunity to have an off-peak lesson just to build your confidence.

Other than that, just try and keep your wits about you. Roundabouts seem to bring out the worst in lots of drivers when it comes to failing to follow signs, cutting corners, late movements... but so long as you follow the correct procedure, you should be OK!

Good luck! 

Hi, new member here, diagnosed this week... and my lifelong job of 30+years has been amongst other things to try to make roundabouts work more efficiently! Some of my key roles in traffic engineering are to try not to ask too much of drivers using the road network, to try and make junctions as intuitive as they can be and to try not to overload drivers with signs and other often confusing or unhelpful information!

Simple one- or two-lane roundabouts should be fairly elementary in principle if you follow the rules and guidance of the highway code. It should be quite straightforward to decide in good time which approach lane you should enter in and provided you follow a similar line around the roundabout itself, you should get out unscathed.

To allay some of your fears though, it would be well worth asking your instructor to focus some of your lesson time travelling through roundabouts that commonly form part of test routes, (a) to fully familiarise yourself with the layout, (b) to try and acclimatise with yours and other drivers' speeds so that you can judge your approach speed and merge safely into the circulatory flow without necessarily having to come to a complete stop, and (c) to identify other drivers' bad habits which might spook you from time to time.

Larger roundabouts with spiral lane markings should be just as strightforward if (big, BIG IF!) they're designed properly! Again, as Katy says, if you choose the correct entry lane and religiously follow it throughout the junction, you should end up exactly where you intend to!  One massive problem is that the bigger the roundabout is, the more counter-intuitive some of the movements begin to appear. There's one near me where you have to keep to the left pretty much all the way around the roundabout to turn right - try not to let that phase you if that is the instruction the various signs and markings have given you - the lane should take you where you want to go.

Maybe get an aerial view printout of the roundabout complete with all the road markings etc off Google maps, get some coloured marker pens and trace every directional movement from each approach. You might just get a clearer idea of exactly what positioning you should take ag any given point - it might also identify any deficiencies in the road marking design which could catch you or any other driver out.

A lot of it is practice but you should jump at any opportunity to have an off-peak lesson just to build your confidence.

Other than that, just try and keep your wits about you. Roundabouts seem to bring out the worst in lots of drivers when it comes to failing to follow signs, cutting corners, late movements... but so long as you follow the correct procedure, you should be OK!

Good luck!