How to navigate roundabouts

With so much traffic on the roads these days, roundabouts are more popular than ever! They are also misunderstood and in many cases not navigated correctly. They are also a very common place for collisions. We find that many drivers either put the wrong signal on or no signal at all.

Which direction?

There are some basic rules that you need to follow when navigating roundabouts. If you imagine the roundabout as a clock and if straight ahead is 12 o'clock, then anything before 12 o'clock is to the left, and anything after 12 o'clock is to the right.

So to to keep it simple you, are only ever going to travel in one of three directions at a roundabout, either to the left, ahead or to the right.

One big area that causes a problem is that when approaching some some roundabouts, drivers don't look at the sign they look at the roundabout, and the road ahead apears to be to the right, but the sign says it is ahead, what happens invariable is then drivers put a right signal on, in doing so misleading other drivers.

Turning 1st exit to the left

Mirror, Mirror, Signal at an appropiate distance, if two lanes, then choose left hand lane, make effective observations, including ahead (incase the vehicle stops in front of you) when it is safe to do so, and you wont afffect any traffic from the right you can proceed.

Turning 2nd exit to the left

Mirror, Mirror, Signal at an appropiate distance, if two lanes, then choose left hand lane, make effective observations, including ahead (incase the vehicle stops in front of you) when it is safe to do so, and you wont afffect any traffic from the right you can proceed.

Following the Road ahead - Left or Right lane

Just to confuse matters even more, there are some roundabouts in Bangor when following the road ahead, you enter in the right hand lane if there are two lanes on approach. So now when approaching roundabouts you need to look at the arrows on the road as well.

Below is a list of roundabouts that when following the road ahead, you enter in the right hand lane.

  • Anglesey Arms roundabout from Shell garage to Bangor
  • Vaynol roundabout bottom road from Felinheli to Bangor
  • Tesco roundabout from Bangor to Caernarfon
  • Curry's roundabout from Bangor to Caernarfon
  • Ysbyty Gwynedd roundabout from Bangor direction

Following the Road ahead - 1st exit

When following the road ahead, do not put a right signal on! If you are following the road ahead and it is the first exit you can do your mirror, mirror signal routine on approach.

Quite often people ask "why are we putting a left signal on if we're going ahead" the answer is that you are confirming to on coming traffic that we are keeping to left of 12 o'clock or to put it another way by having a left signal on you are confirming that you are not turning right!

Following the Road ahead - 2nd or 3rd exit

When following the road ahead, do not put a right signal on! If you are following the road ahead and it is the second or third exit, you do your mirror, mirror signal routine on the exit before you leave the roundabout.

Quite often people ask "why are we putting a left signal on if we're going ahead" the answer is that you are confirming to on coming traffic that we are keeping to left of 12 o'clock or to put it another way by having a left signal on you are confirming that you are not turning right!

Exiting a roundabout to the right

When the sign says you are turning to the right, you can enter in thr righ hand lane if there is one, and you may put a right signal on prior to the roundabout. You can then signal left on the exit before coming off, to let other road users that you are exiting the roundabout.

Going right round the roundabout

When you wish to go round the roundabout to travel in the opposite direction, effectively doing a full circle, enter in the right lane, if there is one, keeping the signal on until the exit before you leave, then signal left before coming off, to let other road users that you are exiting the roundabout.

PLEASE REMEMBER

One of the most common accidents at roundabouts is the rear end shunt, which can cause a lot of damage to both driver and vehicle. PLEASE REMEMBER - keep checking your interior mirror frequently as well as ahead and to the right, so many drivers look more to the right and not enough ahead, then when the car in front of you suddenly stops, before you know it you are in the back of it!

Always leave a minimum of a two second gap between you and the vehicle infront in the dry and a four second gap in the wet and upto ten second gap in snow and ice.