To think that people don’t use this mini roundabout correctly? (Diagram and picture)

[AndiOliversGlasses]

This is on a regular route I drive and I am always approaching it from the angle seen in the photo, to turn right. My approach road is short so no time to build up any speed. As you can see, it is really a T junction of a smaller road in to a bigger one, but it has been configured with a mini roundabout.

Nine times out of 10 traffic coming from the right or the left doesn’t slow down, so even if a car coming from my right is not on the roundabout yet it will beep at me if I pull out and cause it to slow down. I know that the rule is give way to traffic coming from the right, but doesn’t that only apply to traffic already on the roundabout?

I can see that the problem with a mini one is that there is much less time that the car is actually “on” it, but surely everyone should be slowing down as they approach a roundabout?

At this one, usually the only way to get out is by waiting for a pedestrian to cross at the zebra and stop the traffic from the right that way.

AIBU to think that a mini roundabout is still a roundabout and the normal rules should apply? Or am I misunderstanding the rules?

The mini-roundabout will have replaced a T-junction to give the joining road users more chance to pull out, but to still give the main road some priority and keep the main road moving.

If it is a T-junction, a driver from the joining road has to wait until there is a break in the traffic to pull out onto the main road.

If it is a mini roundabaout, they can pull out both when there is a break in the traffic, and also when a car coming from the left is indicating right as it will have priority over traffic coming from the right, and those cars will slow/stop.

So OP, those are the two times when you can safely enter the mini-roundabout without being beeped - when there;s a break in traffic to your right, or when a car from your left enters the mini-roundabout indicating right and the car from the right stops for it.

And of course the mini-roundabout makes it many times easier for those turning right from the joining road.

I think some posters are overlooking the fact that a roundabout is supposed to ease the flow of traffic; it’s not meant to be like a t-junction, with one queue of traffic essentially waiting for a gap in a main stream of traffic.

You are supposed to slow down when you approach a roundabout, even if it’s clear. You need to check before entering.

What OP seems to be saying is that people routinely don’t check on this particular roundabout. They don’t slow down at all. That’s dangerous.

Yes, you have to give way to the right, but the assumption is that you are giving way to traffic moving at roundabout speed, not at 60mph. In the ideal scenario, this slowing down will allow the odd break in the traffic big enough for people from OP’s route to join the roundabout too. Hence the roundabout working to ease flow of traffic.

It’s about seeing the bigger picture, I guess. Yes, you can go screeching through a roundabout barely braking, safe in the knowledge that it’s your right of way. Or you could approach the roundabout with caution, and be the vehicle that finally gives enough breathing space for the car from the minor route to enter the roundabout.

It must be frustrating to have to try to break into a race track every day.

No actually that is exactly how it should work. As I previously said at 20mph you cover 100m in under 11 seconds. So 25m (6 car lengths) in approx 2.5 seconds. Now I'd suggest if the cars approaching from the OP's right are doing 20mph at the junction they are going too fast and giving insufficient time to safely use that roundabout. Six car lengths should be sufficient space to join the flow of traffic going any direction.

If that is how you are interpreting roundabouts along with your lack of knowledge previously in the thread about entry and exit to a roundabout being junctions, I suggest it is you that is incorrect I'm afraid.

What’s particularly important to note is how certain the ‘it’s fine to hurtle through without a pause’ drivers are, that everyone else is an idiot that doesn’t belong on the road. It’s a bad attitude.

Roads work better when people accommodate each other. They don’t work as well when people game the system to gain every 10sec advantage.

I was harassed by a car in a specific situation- can’t remember the exact details, but it involved risky overtaking. By the time we reached the next junction he’d lost all the distance he’d gained and I sailed past in the next lane. He ended up immediately behind me on the final stretch. He’d risked several of us with a risky manoeuvre for a very short lived advantage.

Mutual accommodation works better.

I’m tempted to report your very clear personal attack But actually I’m just standing back and laughing at your escalating frustration as you yell into empty space in the vain hope that I am going to say that I intend never to get behind the wheel again because you have shown me the error of my ways.

If you weren’t so keen to hurl abuse and assert your absolute right to be right you might have understood, like some other recent posters have, that I have never at any point suggested that pulling out in front of a vehicle without enough space is something that anyone could or should do. Neither do I do it, and I maintain that anyone who has time to beep and finger wag was never actually at risk of collision. My point has always been about the speed at which drivers are approaching the roundabout.

But, as someone upthread memorably said, many people just enjoy telling other people they are bad drivers.

To be fair @ATenShun (and thank you so much for your sensible posts in this thread) the Highway Code is clear that nobody ever has right of way, but the rules do create a system of priority. This video explains it quite well, at around 7:50 minutes . He’s clear that the vehicle on the roundabout has priority, as you say.

Thing is, people aren’t being asked to slam the brakes on. Just lift their foot off the accelerator. That’s all it takes.

Yes prioritiy is probably the better word to describe it. And as Keir Twaddle says, a little common sense and taking the lead out of your right foot means everyone gets through the roundabout in a fair and quick fashion.