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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to a 450 degree turn at a roundabout to take 1st exit more quickly?

59 replies

Scrumple · 06/10/2017 14:27

I think i've got those calculations right - basically a circle and a quarter.

My usual roundabout home from work has been extremely busy all week because of road works and diversions nearby . Two lane roundabout with 4 exits.

I normally take the first exit, and have been sitting in the left lane for up to twenty minutes each evening because of a big queue of traffic all the way up the street towards the roundabout. Right lane maybe has the odd few cars in it - 3rd exit only leads to a small car park for some shops.

So yesterday i just went right into the right lane, did a full circle round and then left at my usual 1st exit. Only three cars were in front of me. I waited less than a minute.

Roadworks are expected to last all next week too. I'm wondering if I can carry on doing this or if I'm technically doing something wrong. If it's perfectly legal - why isn't anybody else doing the same?

OP posts:

Lucked · 06/10/2017 15:04

People do this at a roundabout on my way to work. They are dicks. There is a queue and they are skipping it.

Also at most people would expect 380 degrees, (effectively doing a u-turn) so people at the junction you have exited will not be expecting you to pass their junction again and so may move on to the roundabout, they are wrong to do this but if you drive in unexpected ways be prepared to take evasive action.

Coffeeisnecessary · 06/10/2017 15:04

Surely you can drive as many times around a roundabout as you like?

Coffeeisnecessary · 06/10/2017 15:05

As long as you are indicating and in the correct lane I mean.

Lucked · 06/10/2017 15:06

It absolutely does the opposite of helping traffic flow. On her lap she stops people entering the roundabout.

Desperad0 · 06/10/2017 15:08

😂😂 at the people sat in the queue and getting mad.

I bet you also pull into the left hand lane half a mile before the merger on a dual carriageway and silently seethe at the people driving past you on the right

Flyingflipflop · 06/10/2017 15:08

Lucked, they might be dicks, but dicks that know how many degrees are in a circle!

samidolls · 06/10/2017 15:11

I with you OP. I have done this before on more than one occasion if traffic is horrific.

After all if you were lost and ended up in the wrong lane this is what you would do, surely?

It would be far more unreasonable to drive up to the roundabout in the right hand lane and then dive into the left lane at the last second, cutting people up and potentially causing an accident. (This regularly happens to me on the way home and I can't tell you how frustrating it is! )

MyKingdomForAUserName · 06/10/2017 15:13

Surely you can drive as many times around a roundabout as you like?

My driving instructor told me you're only allowed to go round 3 times.

But then she also told me it was rude not to beep the horn at topless workmen....

SandyDenny · 06/10/2017 15:13

I can see both sides but if it was genuinely going to save me 19 minutes on my drive home I'd be doing the same thing.

HotelEuphoria · 06/10/2017 15:14

I do it all the time

MyKingdomForAUserName · 06/10/2017 15:14

My guess is that it's probably quite a complicated question whether this speeds up or slows down the traffic in general. Bet someone somewhere has done a computer simulation, though...

twinjocks · 06/10/2017 15:16

YABU. There's a roundabout like this near my house, and in the same situation you describe, OP, I do exactly the same. Unlike the hordes who whizz up the right hand lane, then whack on their indicators and barge into the left lane - that is unreasonable (and dangerous). When DD was learning to drive, she asked her instructor if it was legal to do this, and he said absolutely.

SandyDenny · 06/10/2017 15:16

Mykingdom - your driving instructor was having you on.

www.endsleigh.co.uk/driving-articles/tips/september-2016/false-driving-myths/

StatueInTheSky · 06/10/2017 15:16

I've done this...cannot get in a tizz about it.
If you know your route/road layout and go for it, then why not.

carefreeeee · 06/10/2017 15:17

It's not clear from the OP whether the queue is caused by people going straight on or people going left at the roundabout.

If the queue is for straight on and you're going left, I don't think what you're doing is really queue jumping because you will be gone and it won't affect other cars except for those going left (presumably only a few who could do the same as you if they wanted)

If the queue is for going left you are morally in the wrong as you are queue jumping. Either way I don't think it's illegal.

TattyCat · 06/10/2017 15:17

YANBU. I can never understand those who sit in a queue in a lane when there's an empty filter lane further up - the filter lane is there to take the excess traffic away from somewhere. They don't put them there for fun!

Yesyesyesyeswhatever · 06/10/2017 15:18

It's perfectly legal. Go ahead.

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 06/10/2017 15:18

Is the queue for cars going straight on or turning left? If it's straight on that is blocked up then I think, whilst a bit cheeky, it's reasonable enough. If it's queuing out of your turning then you're being a right twat.

SandyDenny · 06/10/2017 15:19

I'd say it slows up the people who would have been infront of you in the queue by 1 person but makes no difference to the people who got there after you.

If some people are ditherers about entering the roundabout it probably makes no more difference than their dithering does.

MyKingdomForAUserName · 06/10/2017 15:20

Damn, sandy. I've told a lot of people that

honeysucklejasmine · 06/10/2017 15:22

YANBU. Have done it plenty of times where it's the straight on causing the delay, not the left that I want to take.

arousingcheer · 06/10/2017 15:22

When I took my driving test I misheard the examiner and missed the exit, so I carried on, made a full revolution and then took the exit he had asked me to take. I thought I'd probably failed but he said that there was nothing illegal about going right around first and then taking the exit so he passed me.

takemetomars · 06/10/2017 15:23

I do this all the time if I think it will benefit me.
Nothing illegal about it unless the markings tell you otherwise
Can't see any reason to sit in a queue for any long than I need to.
To all the playing by the rules - your choice but you can't really be annoyed with someone doing something perfectly legal

itsawonderfulworld · 06/10/2017 15:23

YANBU. Although I'd do what a PP suggested and pull into the car park and come straight back out again, mainly to avoid giving everyone else the same idea

Northend77 · 06/10/2017 15:24

Yep, another one here who does this on a very regular basis! Perfectly legal

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