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How would you tackle this roundabout?

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ainsworth74

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There's a roundabout near me and I'm around 95% sure I'm tackling it correctly but would welcome some opinions (and if @Darandio or @marsker are reading this, it's not the one yous might be thinking of, I might do that one next to see what the wider forum make of it :lol:). The textual description would be that you come off a dual-carriage way onto a slip road which itself is two lanes, at the bottom is a two lane roundabout. The second exit from that roundabout leads onto a very short twin lane section (50m or so) and instantly onto another roundabout which whilst much smaller is effectively two lanes as well. The second exit of that roundabout is to the right onto a one lane in each direction road. If you want to exit from the second exit of the second roundabout how should you approach the first roundabout and then cross it?

My approach is to use the right hand lane on the slip road, cross to the central lane of the first roundabout, exit on the righthand lane of the very short twin lane section and then onto the central lane of the second roundabout before exiting. I'm fairly confident this is right but do occasionally doubt myself as due to the way it feels to drive it sometimes feels as if you should be in the left hand lane on the slip round onto the first roundabout (particularly as you cut across the traffic joining from the first exit). But then that would mean crossing instantly to the righthand lane on exiting the roundabout and before reaching the second roundabout which could be quite tricky. So far I've never even had as much as a moment of thinking "oh that was close" let alone an annoyed beep or worse using the approach I've been taking.

Image below an overview of the whole arrangement and then some street view shots giving a closer look form street level. Red is the path that I would take (roughly speaking). Thoughts welcome!

Overview

Overview (2).jpg

Exit slip road onto first roundabout

approach 1 (2).jpg

Exit first roundabout to short two lane road

approach 2 (2).jpg

Approach to second roundabout

approach 3 (2).jpg
 
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Darandio

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Ahh, the good old right-left-right.

I do exactly the same as you to be honest and the majority always seem to follow suit but you do occasionally get some confused motorist to the left of you halfway through the manoeuvre wondering how on earth they are going to put themselves where you are. :lol:

Is the other one I might be thinking of a bit further back down the road by any chance?

P.S. Has the pipe gone yet?
 

stuu

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I think I would stay left on the slip road, stay left on the roundabout, and then exit onto the right hand lane of the side road.

If staying on and going somewhere nicer isn't an option :D
 

Darandio

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I think I would stay left on the slip road, stay left on the roundabout, and then exit onto the right hand lane of the side road.

If staying on and going somewhere nicer isn't an option :D

I can understand that if you are unfamiliar with the location and are thinking about it from the normal perspective of a roundabout. But what @ainsworth74 has also done here is crop the top of the first image (clever, he might not have wanted that disclosing! :lol:) and hidden the fact there actually isn't an exit at the top and therefore no natural right turn to be made other than if you went all the way around to head the other way. I guess that's why pretty much everyone does what we both do because otherwise there would be no traffic using the right at all!
 

Snow1964

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Because the roundabout direction sign only shows 2 left exits and not any right exits, then you are correct, use righthand lane for second of 2 exits (other exits are back onto same road)
 
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gswindale

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I would use left lane on slip road as you are exiting to left (even though it is second exit). That is because the roundabout has centre lane markings past first exit.

On some roundabouts the lane markings spiral out to various exits, they don't here. Therefore have to treat left lane as roundabout exits 1 & 2, and right lane as exits 3 & 4

Wrong to use right lane for exit only quarter of way around.
But why would you use either Exit 3 or 4 coming from that slip road?

I'd be inclined to use the right hand lane for the 2nd exit - particularly if turning right at the 2nd mini roundabout
 

Darandio

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I would use left lane on slip road as you are exiting to left (even though it is second exit). That is because the roundabout has centre lane markings past first exit.

On some roundabouts the lane markings spiral out to various exits, they don't here. Therefore have to treat left lane as roundabout exits 1 & 2, and right lane as exits 3 & 4

Wrong to use right lane for exit only quarter of way around.

I'll have to disagree on that one. The left lane on the slip road already has traffic heading for two different areas, i'd call them 1 & 2. The right hand lane only serves traffic to what I would call exit 3, the direction shown by the arrows above. There is no right turn at the roundabout, maybe 1 in 1000 cars will do a full u-turn. Why leave the right hand lane of the slip road completely empty and cause unnecessary queuing on an already short slip road.

Roundabout.jpg
 

stuu

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I can understand that if you are unfamiliar with the location and are thinking about it from the normal perspective of a roundabout. But what @ainsworth74 has also done here is crop the top of the first image (clever, he might not have wanted that disclosing! :lol:) and hidden the fact there actually isn't an exit at the top and therefore no natural right turn to be made other than if you went all the way around to head the other way. I guess that's why pretty much everyone does what we both do because otherwise there would be no traffic using the right at all!
I see! In which case I would agree with the OPs procedure
 

Snow1964

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I'll have to disagree on that one. The left lane on the slip road already has traffic heading for two different areas, i'd call them 1 & 2. The right hand lane only serves traffic to what I would call exit 3, the direction shown by the arrows above. There is no right turn at the roundabout, maybe 1 in 1000 cars will do a full u-turn. Why leave the right hand lane of the slip road completely empty and cause unnecessary queuing on an already short slip road.

View attachment 138342

I am amending my answer, as I have since checked on streetview and roundabout sign clearly shows 2 left exits and no right exits which I assumed

 

dastocks

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I'll have to disagree on that one. The left lane on the slip road already has traffic heading for two different areas, i'd call them 1 & 2. The right hand lane only serves traffic to what I would call exit 3, the direction shown by the arrows above. There is no right turn at the roundabout, maybe 1 in 1000 cars will do a full u-turn. Why leave the right hand lane of the slip road completely empty and cause unnecessary queuing on an already short slip road.

View attachment 138342
I would generally agree with this approach -using the RH lane of the slip-road off the A66 allows vehicles travelling from [1] to [2] to make their way in parallel. However, I tend to take a flexible approach based on the traffic conditions I find, so if there is a choice between joining a queue or using an empty lane I tend to go for the latter.
 

ainsworth74

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Apologies all my cropping (for size rather than deliberately to obscure) has hidden the lack of any other logical exits :oops:

I do exactly the same as you to be honest and the majority always seem to follow suit but you do occasionally get some confused motorist to the left of you halfway through the manoeuvre wondering how on earth they are going to put themselves where you are. :lol:
Oh good! Glad it's not just me!
Is the other one I might be thinking of a bit further back down the road by any chance?
Ah no not that one, I was thinking of the A174 near Saltburn actually.
P.S. Has the pipe gone yet?
Nope! I turned off just after ASDA and went along past the Stadium instead. It would happen on a week when I'm driving into Boro rather than taking the train of course :rolleyes:
 

Darandio

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Ah no not that one, I was thinking of the A174 near Saltburn actually.

Ah yes. People seem to become particularly confused there if coming out of Marske. I did initially wonder if you were talking about Cargo Fleet Lane where you now just go through the roundabout, that caught me out for a while after remodelling.

It's a recurring theme around here really. Swan's Corner has just been redone, that was all a bit confusing the first couple of times I used it. And don't get me started on the one next to Tesco, there's drivers who have used that one hundreds of times before that still haven't worked out which lane is correct. Plenty of near misses there!
 

Class172

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Context is everything it seems. Upon my first reading of the opening post and the information (layout) I had available, I would have said my personal instinct would have been to take the left-hand lane on the slip road and roundabout, moving across to the right as I left the roundabout. This was based on me assuming there was another exit on the north side of the roundabout. Now I know that there is in fact no such exit, I entirely agree with @ainsworth74 and others’ assessment of using the right-hand lane.
 

Cowley

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Likewise from my reading of it. It makes sense to take it the way that you do (whilst watching for other people uncertainly changing lanes at the last second obviously ;)).
 

GusB

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Signals and position. When taking the first exit to the left, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise
  • signal left and approach in the left-hand lane
  • keep to the left on the roundabout and continue signalling left to leave.
You're not taking the first exit to the left.
When taking an exit to the right or going full circle, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise
  • signal right and approach in the right-hand lane
  • keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
  • signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
You're not taking an exit to the right or going full circle so this doesn't apply, either.
When taking any intermediate exit, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise
  • select the appropriate lane on approach to the roundabout
  • you should not normally need to signal on approach
  • stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout
  • signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
(My bolding)

You're leaving roundabout one at an intermediate exit. As you're going to be taking a right turn at the second roundabout, and the bit between the two roundabouts is very short, I'd say that using the right-hand lane is the most appropriate action in the circumstances. If you use the left-hand lane you're then going to have to do a lane change in a very short space, which could cause conflict with other traffic. I can see how someone might get caught out, especially if they're unfamiliar with the road layout.
 

Aviator88

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In the absence of road markings and a well-defined left turn, it really is down to using your judgment on correct positioning - there's no hard and fast legal standpoint on this.

For what it's worth, I would do it the same way as you. The primary risk is traffic already on the roundabout moving at the speed of light and over/undertaking you whilst intending to head the same way as yourself.
 

Starmill

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I guess the point is that a driver who hasn't been along that road previously might miss the fact that there aren't further exits from the roundabout other than doing a u-turn, because the advance signage doesn't seem to give enough time to take all of that information in. Of course, the guidance above by @GusB still seems the natural default in this circumstance in the absence of any other information from signs.

Perhaps a solution would be a get in lane plate and two additional advance lane diagrams? Although even then, there's not an enormously intuitive choice of what to put on what lane is there. Also looks like most of the markings in the area are due a refresh, though of course that's a pretty minor point.
 

cactustwirly

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Without any other lane directions painted on to the road, and fact it is a 2 lane exit, the correct way is to keep right and exit the first roundabout in the right hand lane.

There's a roundabout in Reading where there are no lane directions, and the 1st exit has 2 lanes so a lot of cars use the right hand lane to turn left.
 

gswindale

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Without any other lane directions painted on to the road, and fact it is a 2 lane exit, the correct way is to keep right and exit the first roundabout in the right hand lane.

There's a roundabout in Reading where there are no lane directions, and the 1st exit has 2 lanes so a lot of cars use the right hand lane to turn left.
Best not to talk about lane markings, Reading and roundabouts if you ask me.

It's not just that one. The one by the Oracle Riverside car park is also shocking, but I think I drive it correctly
 

61653 HTAFC

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My driving instructor (over 20 years ago now) taught me not to think of roundabout exits as directions (left, right, straight on) but as numbers (first exit, second exit, third exit etc.) when ascertaining which lane to use in the absence of instructions from signage or road markings.
 
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