Which lane should you be in? Diagram!

[CactusUmbrella]

If you were driving from where the red arrow is towards the roundabout, and going straight ahead to where the green arrow is, which lane should you be in?

Context is that I had a collision on this roundabout over 2 years ago, still hasn't been resolved and is now likely to go to court! Other driver claiming they were in correct lane, I believe I was...

Left lane but I always assume people in the right lane may try to come over. Were they behind you OP or in view when the cars hit?

He is in the wrong. Quite apart from the lane issue though, how did he not see you? Sounds like driving without due care and attention.

^ this
He was exiting the roundabout and clearly didn't check whether anything was on his inside before he moved across from the middle of the roundabout. If you had been a motorbike he could have knocked you off.

Its straight ahead, its the second exit, it's always going to be left lane unless road markings dictate otherwise.

Left. Doesn't look like left only, so I would say you were correct. The taxi should have looked before crossing into your lane.

There are no road markings, and the HWC is ambiguous on the subject - either lane could be the "appropriate" lane.

Two years to settle an RTA is not unusual for insurance to settle up, but if there's a genuine prospect it's going to court then the situation cannot be clear cut. Insurance companies hate paying for court processes. So someone's rejected 50:50/60:40 and feels they have a very strong case that the other party had greater culpability.

Yes, it's the left lane. But we have a roundabout exactly like this outside our house and the amount of near misses from people using the right hand lane to go straight ahead is unbelievable.

@GameOfJones be aware that's how many of us were taught.

Left hand lane

Yes left lane. Good luck

Left, unless there was signage or painted markings indicating otherwise

I live here (not on the roundabout but v local!) and left is absolutely correct. Good luck OP!

(edited for typo)

Good for you- are you making an insurance claim then?

My car (financed) was damaged beyond what I could afford to pay to fix myself. I contacted the taxi company and offered to go halves on the cost of repair, they refused obviously and almost tried to talk me out of claiming by sending me emails telling me my insurance will go up if I claim!

As the car is financed, the damage had to be repaired as I intend to hand it back at the end of the finance term.

I haven't said no to settling 50/50, I haven't actually been given this as an option at any point. My insurance did all they could and then passed onto solicitors. The third party failed to give their defence the first time they were asked by the court/judge but were granted another chance. If they do not provide a defence a second time, it will be resolved in my favour. If they do provide a defence, it will go to a hearing.

I think you will win.

I’d say left, but I live right by a roundabout almost identical to this, and at least half the people use the right hand lane. They are some very bad drivers round here though, don’t get me started on what they do at level crossings!

My 2p - it isn't unusual for either lane to be able to go straight on, but the important part here is that you had clearly already passed the left turn, so where did the taxi driver expect you to go? If he was in the right hand lane, he wouldn't reasonably have expected you to turn right, therefore, the only other options were for you to disappear in a puff of smoke, or to go straight on.

He has no excuse for just driving into you. My guess is that he was too busy chatting to his fare, and didn't even notice you were there until the last moment.

Unless there is any signage to dictate otherwise, you use the left lane.

if he was a taxi driver he should know the area so this doesn’t apply, but the lane you came out of is the only one with 2 lanes marked but one might think the opposite lane also has 2, that merge together further down the line, so maybe he was planning to overtake you on the exit.

The diagram in the link to the Highway Code on the first page is clear you were correct.

I must admit, I thought either were acceptable but looking at the HC, I think Iwas wrong!

I think this is your main defence. If you hadn't already turned left at the first exit, where did the taxi reasonably think you were heading? At the very least, he should have slowed down to allow you to go first. It's clear you were heading for the same exit, because if you hadn't taken the first left and, in his mind, weren't heading for the same exit as him, that only leaves you going all the way round the roundabout, in which case you'd be cutting him off completely. And in that scenario, you would be in the wrong. But you weren't, so you're not.

Can't believe this hasn't been sorted after 2 years.

It can't be 'either lane is ok' if your exit is a single lane. Cos then there would be crashes all day long.

I think he was doubly incorrect. In the wrong lane but then wrong for just trying to exit without looking where he was going.

Where I live there's a roundabout where the left hand lane is left only, right lane is straight on or right. Twice now I've been forced out of the junction by people going straight on in the left lane. I could see they were there, knew I couldn't pull off the roundabout without crashing into them so I had to go round again. There's no way I'd have rammed into them unless I wasn't paying attention.

That simply isn't true. Highway code simply says "appropriate lane" so neither left nor right is set in stone.

In any case, it is irrelevant here as the OP was correctly positioned and indicating and slightly ahead of the taxi.

Yup