Who had right of way?

[Waytoofar]

I’ve uploaded a picture of the scenario. Cars 1,2 and 3. I’ve added the direction they were indicating to go. Car 1 was turning their right, car 2 was turning their right and car 3 was going straight. What order should the cars have gone in. By time car 3 got to the roundabout car 2 was approx where the 1 and 2 arrows meet. 3 stopped and gave 2 lots of abuse. Beeping, flashing and sticking fingers up. Meanwhile car 1 is patiently waiting for everyone to move so they can 🤔

But surely 3 would have to give way to 1 anyway? As 1 is on his right and therefore has priority over him?

Although as I don’t want to be in an accident I’d always give way to the speeding BMW even though they’re completely in the wrong.

With 2 cars at the stop line already 3 definitely doesn't have priority.

You should give way to your right for vehicles already at the roundabout. People approaching roundabouts should be approaching it prepared to stop at the stop line unless you've got really good visibility, which is not the case with most mini roundabouts. Mini roundabouts are an essentially bad piece of road design in at least 50% of cases ime

I too used to think the rule was 'give way to traffic already on the roundabout' until I was followed into a petrol station and shouted at for having entered a roundabout ahead of someone on my right, although they were several car lengths away from the roundabout when I pulled out. I was surprised to find that though the rule is '...approaching from the right' there doesn't seem to be any clarification of what constitutes 'approaching'.

In the absence of any such guidance I think this is a worse than useless rule that can easily leave two people each believing they have right of way. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents as a result.

If car 2 blocked car 3, it tends to suggest car 3 was closer than the picture shows. If car 3 was so far away, then car 2 could have easily cleared the way allowing car 3 to progress unhindered.

That’s what happened. Car 2 was out of the way. 2 would have blocked me (1) from going as he was in front of my turning the round about but he wasn’t blocking 3s route

In front of me, turning not…my

Even so I feel like if 3 could clearly see I was waiting for someone then he should have slowed down. Surely in this scenario he was last to go as I’m waiting for 2, then I’m crossing 3s path

If 3 could see 1 was blocked and his path was clear he was fine to carry on but completely wrong to abuse 2.

So 3 has approached the roundabout, seen that there is nothing to his right, and therefore entered the roundabout.

He perhaps forgot to check there was not also a car in front of him!

Mini roundabouts don't really have rights of way, in the sense that if you crash on one it's going to end up as a 50:50 fault claim because they are such a nightmare.

If it was just you and car 3, then arguably, you could both enter the roundabout at roughly the same time as Car 2 left. Your roundabout is only on three sides but arguably as you were directly opposite, there is no reason why you couldn't both be on it at the same time. You would both start by going straight. You would then curve round the roundabout as he continued straight and left, thereby avoiding each other but keeping traffic moving.

As Car 2 was blocking you but not him, he should have just gone and you would then have entered the roundabout a second or two later. Most likely as he was leaving it.

It does rather sound like he did not realise it was a roundabout at all. So thought car 2 was turning right in front of him. To be fair, at these sort of roundabouts near me, quite a few cars do just turn right, without actually going around it, completing negating how its supposed to work to facilitate more cars on the intersection at once.

But surely 3 would have to give way to 1 anyway? As 1 is on his right and therefore has priority over him? Only if 1 were in a position where he’d have had to take evasive action (eg braking) if 3 had entered the roundabout. If you can go without getting in anyone’s way, do so. It’s when everyone is hesitating and waiting for everyone else that you end up with two going at once and colliding

Car 3 couldn't have been in that much of a hurry if there was time available to stop and shout abuse.

With the cars as positioned, I would say priority is 2, 1, 3

If all three cars were at the roundabout at the same time, I would say priority should go 1, 3, 2.
It could go 3, 2, 1 if 3 was quicker to move than 1, but I would see it that 1 would be coming from the right of 3, and therefore 3 should give way to 1. Whereas 3 will not cross the path of 1 from the right, so has no priority.

There is a roundabout near me like this and in practice, if cars like 3 and 1 arrive at the same time then 3 always gives way to 1

2 first, 3 should have slowed down to assess properly before getting angry. Car 3 was not at roundabout when 2 was ready to go so fine for 2 to go. Car 1 was right to wait.

I read something from traffic police recently that said that whoever is on the roundabout first gets priority. That means everyone should exercise caution at mini roundabouts.

You don’t have to wait for 3 driver to arrive at a junction to then give priority to that driver. A roundabout is about keeping the traffic flowing.

it’s no longer a T junction, which if it was you would have to give priority to driver 3

2 was correct to go first, as 1 was giving way to 2, and 3 was not at the roundabout and should have been slowing down anyway, in order to give way to 1, approaching from the right. However invariably 3 is a speeding wanker who always seems think that he has the right of way as he is on a straight road. Idiot.

Ah I see it's more about car 1 and 3 - if it's a small roundabout so only space for one car at a time then yes I think car 1 should go before 3, but if car 3 can safely join before car 1 can then it's car 3 first? It sounds like 3 was being an aggressive driver so in that circumstance its better for everyone else to be cautious even if it isn't 'correct'

It's hard to know without knowing the speed at which 3 is approaching the roundabout. 2,1,3 would be my best guess. But could easily be 2,3,1

Nobody has right of way, they have priority. If you would cause a vehicle with priority over you to alter speed then you should defer to them.

In this case it's a question of timing. If 2 can clear 3s path before they get there then they have priority over 1 and should go. It's hard to argue for 3 being in the right, either there is time for 2 to safely proceed which blocks 1, or there isn't so 2 defers and 1 blocks 3.

So either 213 or 132, but not 3 first. Unless of course one of them is an octogenarian or a tractor in which case all bets are off.

Actually 123 could also be perfectly ok.