Who was in the right lane? Picture included

[ilovebeigefood]

Hi everyone.

I use this roundabout almost daily. I was where the yellow line was. In the right hand lane to turn right around the roundabout 3rd exit.

The left lane has arrows for 1st exit and straight over (second exit) and right lane for 3rd and 4th. Well that's how I read it anyway! So I pulled out and a big angry man in a big angry van was in the LEFT lane but going for the same exit as me (3rd) He the got up my arse flashed me when I managed to get in front of him and then we came level at another roundabout down the road and he called me a blonde bitch (naiiiice).

Light hearted really, doesn't bother me. But AIBU to think I'm using the right lane? Seems pretty obvious to me but prepared to be told I'm wrong if so!

Also worth pointing the exit I was going for didn't have those bottleneck exits where 2 lanes could merge. Just the one lane.

This.

If you follow the rules of roundabout use, generally anything past 12 o'clock would be right lane. We have a roundabout with almost the exact same layout but no road name markings and you use the left lane for the first two exits and the right lane for the next two. The road markings in your case need updating as it could cause confusion if, for example, you don't know the area, see a roundabout sign showing you need the third exit towards the right so move into the right lane and then see the road markings afterwards.

I agree it is also nonsensical to have the right lane only for traffic going to the tip.

It's an expression. My Dad uses it often!

The man was a tosser but I guess he was right. TBH I agree that it's a badly signposted roundabout so I don't think you were daft to be in the wrong lane. Your point about what happens if you dont know which road is the A327 is a good one.

This is a perfect example about why everyone should just chill out when they drive. Everyone makes mistakes and there is no need to get angry.

But he was correct.

There’s a roundabout like this near me. Two lanes. An exit at eleven o’clock, one o’clock and three o’clock. Doesn’t matter which lane you’re in you piss someone off. I don’t think there’s any road marking or lane signs at all.

At Meadowgate Roundabout it is the same in both directions - A327 Elles Road to A327 Elles Road is marked as straight on and you should use the left hand lane, even though NE to W (the direction OP was going) is slightly right of straight ahead. This means there are two left turns (exits 1 & 2) one straight on (exit 3) and one right turn (exit 4). In the opposite W to NE direction exit 1 is left, exit 2 is straight on and exits 3 & 4 are right turns.

he was in the correct lane. All those saying after 12 o'clock - while that is often true, its also should be noted that road marking or signs do overrule that, so you need to be aware of what is being displayed to you.

The below is the sign before the junction

Street View shows left lane for A327-A327 in both directions.

We often use this roundabout and the number of people that get it wrong make the kids play a game of who is in the wrong lane as they are not following the road markings (that would include you). The issue came when they added the airport departures exit (although some people were wrong before that not as frequent though) this comes up on local facebook groups often and this video shows it from around 3 minutes onward.

the van driver was in the correct lane but his behaviour was not (although if you cut him up and nearly caused an accident understandable)

A point that I don't think has been mentioned so far is that an actual "roundabout" is just a basic circle with concentric lanes and no specific route markings. Then the rules in the highway code apply.
These round junctions look like roundabouts but they often have traffic lights, lanes that spiral outwards like a snail, and other embellishments.
All this overrides the generic roundabout rules.
In this case the main route is kept on the left lane, which makes life simpler for the majority of traffic which is through traffic.

Another point is that it's totally fine to get into any lane on the way on to the junction, as you are perfectly allowed to change lane at any point, just you are responsible for giving way at that point. I suspect the been driver was annoyed about whether or not the OP left space to change lanes, rather than whether they were following the same lane all the way round.
Take care.

From the photo you uploaded, you were on elles road approaching the roundabout and the third exit was on elles road…so that’s straight over as you are remaining on the same road. right turn is 4th exit or all the way round.

Am I right in thinking you can tell from the road signs which way is “straight on”as the road on the sign is thicker? So straight on means a continuation of the road you’re on, which may not from an trigonometry pov be straight on?

It looks like the roundabout near me, where if there's traffic, you can't see the road markings and there is no other clue
People just seem to shut their eyes and guess

"Straight on" isn't necessarily a straight road, it's continuing on the road you're on, which in this case meant using the third exit. There's a similar road layout near us and it always used to confuse me too, until I got my head around not thinking of straight as a line!

Agreed. A lot of people don’t know road numbers, some don’t even know names if we’re travelling through following a SATNAV

sounds like it’s confusing and worth asking council to make clearer

i guess people do what you did all the time, and vanman gets his kicks from his aggressively lambasting the confused drivers - he’s a dick …but in some ways at least you know now before you have accident and even if you now use correct LFT lane you’ll know to be on look out for the unwary drivers that think the right Lane is right and not swear at them

That’s what I think. The whole 12 o’clock thing doesn’t really apply. Straight ahead in the case of this roundabout is following the continuation of the same road, which is shown on the signs and the road markings.

It's because you cannot turn "right" on a roundabout only left, so its 1st left, second left, 3rd left etc....Straight on (otherwise known as 2nd left) is fine as you can drive straight on with a left bend, but a right sign is incorrect as you cannot turn right.

Where have you pulled that nonsense from?
Right arrows on roundabouts are common as muck.
When you're taking the exit/exists furthest round, the lane for those would have a right arrow.

I don't live in the UK but the place I live the people are seriously the most chilled out drivers and it's actually nice to drive here. You can make mistakes! People let you merge in! I've heard the theory that the relaxed nature of driving here comes from the fact that it used to be a normal 2 way road system but then whoever is in charge of these things decided a city wide 1 way system would work better so they got everything ready and then it all switched over on the same day so everyone got used to driving whilst not having a clue where they were going/sharing the road with others who didn't have a clue. Even though that was years and years ago the driving style has persisted which I find fascinating. Sorry that was a rambling tangent!

The roundabout in question is clearly confusing. The van driver is a bully and his reaction is in no way understandable (I'm assuming you indicated correctly OP).

Normal rules of the road would say you're right so I'm sure many people make that mistake on that Roundabout and that Van driver was being a dick about it

@Helpyou 'what's that got to do with the price of fish?' Is a well known expression meaning what's that got to do with anything. Have you never heard it?

You were not in the wrong. We have a very similar layout roundabout here and the amount of people who nearly drive into the side of us when we are in the middle lane which is for exits 2,3 and 4 (the left lane is for 1 and 2 only) and the right is for exit 5 and then back alone the dual carriage way the other way. They all look confused as to why they are being beeped at

But she was wrong. She was the one swerving from the wrong lane. The lanes are marked and people who recognised the roundabout have been on to explain.

Bit late finally posting the reply i'd prepared so some have already caught most points

He was in the correct lane, you were unfortunately not. Elles road (and your 3rd exit) is the A327 and the legend painted on the road, on left hand approaching lane, shows a left/straight arrow with A327 below it. You're effectively continuing straight-ish on on the same road.
Additionally the exit from the roundabout onto exit 3 has the right hand lane blocked off by painted hatch markings suggesting that only the outer ring of the roundabout should exit onto here as the inner ring would/should exit into the prohibited right hand lane.

Pics attached.

That being said, if you don't know the number/name of the road (or the area too well), only that you want exit 3 of 4 possible exits (without doubling back upon yourself) it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect to use the rightmost of the 2 lanes as you did.
Further defence to you is the A327 legend on the road is at the 2nd set of arrow markings, almost right at the roundabout, the first set has no such info to help you get into the correct lane and the 2 signs on approach are of no use in determining which lane, if anything they are detrimental.

You made a simple (and not unreasonable error considering the inadequate information provided to you) and he was very much a dick for having a go at you.

To further complicate things, exit 2 from the roundabout takes you to gates blocking the road (not that most would know this, nor do the road signs let on) so there really are only 3 real exits not 4 to use.

Google streetview link for those that want to play

Sounds like you were in the wrong lane because of the particular characteristics of this roundabout. But as important is how you changed lanes; did you signal? Did you cut him up when changing? Did he hold back on seeing your indicators and let you out like a decent driver would?