Who's being U here? Driving question.

[WelshMoth]

Everyday I navigate a small roundabout to get onto DC's school road. It has 4 roads running onto it and is just big enough to be a 2 lane roundabout.

For the 3rd time since school restarted just last week, I've had a fist shaken at me (hairy arsed lorry driver), head shaken and shouting at me (hairy arsed van driver) and today a middle finger accompanied by yelling (stroppy blonde woman in shiny car). Sorry for the labels - helps me remember.

Anyhow, I always use the left lane to go straight on, aka the 2nd exit off the roundabout. Those going to the right, or doubling back onto the road they came from, take the right lane.

I'm assuming these 'pissed off drivers' think I'm turning left into the road they are waiting to pull out of, so make to pull out and then have to jam on as I'm actually going straight on.

Am I following the Highway code here? As far as I'm concerned, I think I am. I'm getting cheesed off for getting yelled at. I can hardly indicate to go straight on can I, so why the grief?

I await the MN jury.

They're in the wrong and being wankers. If I'm at a roundabout and someone pulls out of the previous lane, I expect them to indicate if they're pulling off onto the road I'm exiting and it's safe for me to pull out. If they don't indicate I assume they're passing me and I should wait. That's how it works.

These people are being impatient dickheads and should get up earlier, so they don't end up running late and making rude gestures at someone who's driving in a perfectly reasonable way.

This is the Highway Code's explanation, with clear diagrams. It's how I was taught, twenty years ago. OP, you are right, they are wrong.

topknob you change up or down gear because you have sped up or slowed down, not in order to do so.

If you use your gears to slow down you will shag your gear box. Also the driver behind you won't know if you are slowing because there will be no illuminated brake lights if you rely on changing down a gear to slow your speed.

And using the left lane at a roundabout to turn left ONLY would only apply if road markings say so, otherwise you use the left lane to go left or straight across.

You sound like a liability.

No, using gears to slow down can be good practice - it's less likely to make you skid in ice than braking sharply. But tapping your brake to make the lights show is a good idea so someone behind can see you''re slowing down.

I agree about the left lane thing though - that's just odd.

Not talking about driving on ice or down steep hills though LRD - of course using a combination of low gear and light braking would be best practice.

Using the accelerator appropriately and changing gear accordingly is far safer (and better for your engine/clutch!) than regularly using the clutch as a mechanism to slow

Op, I do what you do, but my dh reckons it's ok to go straight ahead from either lane. I see that Squeezemebakingpowder agrees with DH.

Anyway, you are not driving incorrectly.

sidge - sure, just thought I'd make the point as a tangent.

I think so much of driving used to be dictated by the prices of different bits of the car rather than what's safest - I know my dad has a host of things he reluctantly admits aren't anything to do with safe driving but are habits from older cars (like changing down through gears instead of selecting the appropriate gear first off).

I suspect with this situation, what it boils down to is some people are rude drivers and will honk people like the OP no matter what they're doing.

Btw, don't quite know what you mean by using the clutch to slow - the clutch can't do anything at all to slow the car down, only the gears, brakes, weight of the car or angle of the road can do that.

I think she meant 'gear'
And yes, low gear going down hill to limit speed good; on ice its more complicated than just 'low gear' - you use the highest gear you can going along (lower torque, less wheelspin) but drop gear for slowing. There again, ABS and traction control make braking systems much better than they used to be.

Does that cover it?

I went to bed early last night so didn't want to post my question & run.

We have a complicated-like-a-roundabout junction near us. When coming home from DS1's sch, I want to go right at this non-roundabout & then left at the other side of it which is an actual roundabout (clear as mud I know!).

To start with, I used to go into the RH lane as I'm heading to somewhere past 12 o'clock, then when I go past 2 exits I have to move into the LH lane to turn left at the next bit of the junction.
But, no-one would ever let me in when I wanted to change lane and people got very stressy. I ended up getting stressed too and though about how I could make things easier for me (& the other stressheads!). And watched what other people did.
So now I start in the LH lane, go past 2 exits, then I'm in the right place for where I want to be to turn left.
Everyone seems happy.

But it's wrong! And I have had words with DH about this - he even went round it with an Advanced Driving Instructor friend who said you should start in the RH lane, which I agree with, but then you can't change lane partway round as no-one will let you in.
(of course the time I said that someone beautifully let DH in and I looked like a fool!)

For now I will continue doing the wrong thing as it's easier despite my anal-retentiveness wanting to do everything right :)

Oh, that makes sense grimma, sorry.

I was pondering the incredibly Byzantine rules that govern my dad's driving, and I'm sure the clutch features prominently in something, but god knows what. This thread is reminding me of it all a lot!

JKS, yes, I hate ones like that; the best multi-lane roundabouts have lanes which spiral outwards and avoid that problem.

Still, with all their faults, British roundabouts are better than elsewhere.

Americans have different rules in different places for their rare roundabouts, and no one knows what to do. As for France - its quite fun to stand on to of L'Arc de Triomphe watching the chaos below - we saw a poor little Smart car marooned for several minutes looking paralysed with fear.

LRD - does your Dad double de-clutch? No idea how to do it, some relic of the days before synchromesh.

I like 4-way stops in South Africa, they seem to work much better.

Are they the same as 4-way stops in the US? Those really only work at all with low traffic density, and even then, you get the simultaneous arrival problem.

Probably the same - and true, not so much traffic in SA compared to here.

The bigger roundabouts here that have lights & painted lines on the road seem to work fine, think they give everyone the courage to go the right way and know they are right :)

Thought it was right lane (if left lane not arrowed left only) for third or subsequent exits off roundabout. Obviously you have to carefully slip left to access turnoff (while indicating left) just before you make your exit as you have to get out of inner lane.

This way the only cars potentially in the left lane as you exit would be those come from the last exit and these would have waited to give way to right of them, allowed you ahead and therefore there would be no crashes as you exit.

Need to do a clear writing course. Badly.

grimma - I've no idea, it sounds more like some kind of shenanigans I'd prefer not to associate with my father than a driving technique, but I can ask him.

He's really not a great driver, he managed to drive over a small and elegant BMW when he was pulling out of a parking bay a while back.

When I say indicate just before exit, I mean just past previous exit as car coming onto roundabout (only cars technically going to be in the left lane) are thus aware you are going to access left lane to exit.

Oops yes meant gears not clutch, sorry (had typed gears and clutch too many times!!)

No worries, I would have realized what you meant if my mind hadn't been going off on tangents!

".. No, using gears to slow down can be good practice .."

No. Your idears are way out of date here.

Changing down to slow the car is unnecessary and wasteful.

See here for an explanation: Gears vs Brakes

Pendeen, that's not actually what I was talking about - it's not very clear, my fault, but I did also post later about why changing down through the gears is a bad idea. I was talking about driving in ice, as I said. This is current good practice I believe.

My mistake - sorry.

Yes ice driving is somewhat different from normal practice.