Bombhead
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2010
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Swindon, Wiltshire
I guess the Magic roundabout is a bit of a one off, it's a great talking point, TV shows and videos have been made about it and people do travel to Swindon to see it working and experience it for themselves....at least they're getting out I suppose, probably on license
I've been giving some thought to the original post and firstly Jez let me say how pleased I am you came through it, I guess we all get those "WTF" moments on a regular basis and as long as we can walk away, it's gotta be good.
As far as I can see you didn't make any errors yourself, I know a few folk commented on not trusting signals and of course you shouldn't but the fact you were able to take the action you did must have meant you were expecting crazy to happen anyway.
The advice on roundabouts with two or more approach lanes is always to keep left unless you are taking the "right hand" exit unless the lane markings tell you otherwise. They teach you this on CBT and DAS to get you through your test and it's in the highway code. However the roundabout was clearly marked and the left lane had queing traffic so using the right hand lane was the best way to make forward progress.
I think you were the victim of yet another case of blinkered/asleep/poor driving. How many times do you approach any sort of junction/hazard (let's face it, all junctions are a hazard) and see either innapropriate indicating or none at all. IMHO no indicating is better than wrong because you are then forced to look at other tell-tale signs (wheel direction, position of drivers head etc) and you are in no danger of subliminally trusting orange!
Road users generally allow themsleves to slip in to bad habits and proper signalling is one of the first casualties. It is made worse by the selfish nature so popular in society these days (I'm going over there and I don't care who gets in my way cause I'm late/important.......:Flip and a tendency for folk to do everything too late, approaching too fast, not thinking of where they are really going etc.
But if you really want someone to blame, let's start at the roots and all those wonderful folk who plan and maintain the traffic management of this countries roads. Lack of consistency when implementing new measures is a big cause of confusion, I have no idea how many roundabouts there are in Swindon but I swear they are all laid out differently and the same goes for traffic lights and junctions. Add to that worn or invisible road markings and signs which are often misleading and you have the perfect mix for accidents.
Gosh, I can go on a bit can't I:BLAA:
I've been giving some thought to the original post and firstly Jez let me say how pleased I am you came through it, I guess we all get those "WTF" moments on a regular basis and as long as we can walk away, it's gotta be good.
As far as I can see you didn't make any errors yourself, I know a few folk commented on not trusting signals and of course you shouldn't but the fact you were able to take the action you did must have meant you were expecting crazy to happen anyway.
The advice on roundabouts with two or more approach lanes is always to keep left unless you are taking the "right hand" exit unless the lane markings tell you otherwise. They teach you this on CBT and DAS to get you through your test and it's in the highway code. However the roundabout was clearly marked and the left lane had queing traffic so using the right hand lane was the best way to make forward progress.
I think you were the victim of yet another case of blinkered/asleep/poor driving. How many times do you approach any sort of junction/hazard (let's face it, all junctions are a hazard) and see either innapropriate indicating or none at all. IMHO no indicating is better than wrong because you are then forced to look at other tell-tale signs (wheel direction, position of drivers head etc) and you are in no danger of subliminally trusting orange!
Road users generally allow themsleves to slip in to bad habits and proper signalling is one of the first casualties. It is made worse by the selfish nature so popular in society these days (I'm going over there and I don't care who gets in my way cause I'm late/important.......:Flip
and a tendency for folk to do everything too late, approaching too fast, not thinking of where they are really going etc.But if you really want someone to blame, let's start at the roots and all those wonderful folk who plan and maintain the traffic management of this countries roads. Lack of consistency when implementing new measures is a big cause of confusion, I have no idea how many roundabouts there are in Swindon but I swear they are all laid out differently and the same goes for traffic lights and junctions. Add to that worn or invisible road markings and signs which are often misleading and you have the perfect mix for accidents.
Gosh, I can go on a bit can't I:BLAA:
