Which lane at round about

[TheChuckling]

Hi all, me and DP have gone away and that meant a long drive. Queue lots of arguing and bickering along the way about lane changes and directions lol.

Anyway we are currently arguing about which lane we would use if we were going third exit at a round about but third exit happened to be 12 o’clock.

I have tried to attach a pic of what I mean. Would you use inside or outside lane? We saw people using both lanes for this so didn’t help either of us prove our argument.

Hmm... To be honest, in the absence of any signs or road markings it would depend on which exit was the continuation of the main road I was already following, and whether or not it was a dual carriageway on exit. I'd also take the volume of traffic into consideration.

For instance I can think of several examples locally where exits 1 and 2 are piddly side roads and the main road carries straight ahead (A1 anybody?!). With all of those I stay in the left lane to go straight on.

Well for a start you'd be blocking the left hand lane for people who wanted to join the roundabout at the first or second junctions.
But mainly you'd be cutting up the people who took the right hand lane for the same exit as you. Who are the people like me who have never heard of a 12 o'clock rule.

You don't 'block' the left lane for joiners - they are required to give way to you. You have the right of way to be in the left lane.

It's also not 'cutting up the people who took the right hand lane' - they would be cutting you up. You can only cut someone up if you enter their lane, it's not possible to do that by staying in your own lane.

This is good advice 😄

Ok, so maybe it's not technically called cutting up, but it's the same idea. Take my aunt, for example, too nervous to switch lanes on a big roundabout so always keeps to the left hand lane no matter which exit she is taking. People to her right (correctly) want to move lanes at some point so they can take their exit, but if they're unlucky enough to be driving alongside her then they're blocked from doing so. I don't know if you'd call it cutting up, but it's some inconsiderate driving. Same with blocking the left hand lane for people who want to join the roundabout - yes, they have to give way to you, but way make them do so needlessly if you're not leaving the roundabout for another two or three exits? The same way you would pull over to the overtaking lane of a motorway if there were people on the slip road wanting to join the carriageway.

Would depend on a lot of things if there were no lane signs. If exits 1 & 2 are tiny and 3 is a dual carriageway or continuation of the main road, then I'd probably choose the left lane. If not (or if it was busy), then I'd probably choose right and if necessary go around the roundabout again.

But if there's no signs then I do think you have to expect a free-for-all and that cars in both lanes could be going straight ahead. Hence being prepared if in the right lane to not be able to exit and to go around again.