Driving: Roundabouts

by poedgirl on 16/04/09 at 12:10 pm

Driving: Roundabouts

On my way to work this morning, I was caught behind a complete moron. Not only did he constantly break at random times (with no-one in front of him and going 10km/h below the speed limit), but he completely failed to navigate two roundabouts.

Roundabouts are one of my biggest pet peeves with driving in Perth. People just don’t understand them, even though they are extremely simple to understand. I’ll start by explaining what the person did wrong. Upon entering the roundabout, he indicated right. He then proceeded to go straight, keeping his right indicator on until after he exited. Seriously, how the hell does anyone think indicating right when going straight is the right thing to do?

Here are the VERY simple steps for navigating a roundabout in Western Australia:

  1. When approaching the roundabout, indicate your intentions (just like any other intersection):
    • If turning left, indicate left.
    • If going straight, do NOT indicate.
    • If turning right, indicate right.
    • If there are more than 4 exits, if exiting after the second exit, indicate right.
  2. Give way to anyone coming from the right of where you are, including vehicles approaching the roundabout or vehicles already in it.
  3. Proceed through the roundabout, if a multilane roundabout, stay in your lane – no matter what.
  4. When exiting, indicate left.

And there we have it, the EXTREMELY simple rules for navigating a roundabout, yet so many people get it wrong. You’d be amazed at how many times I go through a multilane roundabout just to be nearly hit because some idiot changed lanes as well.



2 Comments

emailtoid.net/i/f1f8def1/…

Aug 19th, 2009

Your point #2 is a common misconception. The actual rule is in fact far simpler.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_reg/rtc2000113/s95.html

ROAD TRAFFIC CODE 2000 – REG 95
95 . Right of way in a roundabout

A driver entering a roundabout shall give way to a vehicle that is within the roundabout.

Points: 3 Modified penalty: 3 PU

Also, regarding point #1 indicating right is required when you are exiting more than halfway around a roundabout, which can occur on 3 exit roundabouts where the 2nd exit is not straight-ahead.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_reg/rtc2000113/s94.html

ROAD TRAFFIC CODE 2000 – REG 94
94 . Indicating right when entering a roundabout

(1) This regulation applies to a driver entering a roundabout, if the driver is to leave the roundabout more than halfway around it.

(2) A driver shall —

(a) give a right turn signal when the driver is entering the roundabout; and

(b) continue to give the right turn signal while the driver is driving in the roundabout, unless the driver is changing marked lanes, entering another line of traffic or required by regulation 99 to give a left turn signal.

Points: 2 Modified penalty: 2 PU

And that’s enough anal rententiveness from me for today :-)

Otherwise, I fully agree with the spirit of this post. Keep at it.

poedgirl

Aug 20th, 2009

My point #2 was made so you don’t have idiots who pull out right in front of you just because they would get on the roundabout a split second before you and are going a lot slower. I have had this quite a few times and it is really annoying because I have to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them.

In regards to the right turn signal, I tried to make this as simple as possible. I know the law states that you must indicate right when it’s more than 180 degrees, but most people wouldn’t bother to work that out.

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