People Negotiating Roundabouts in India

[vnabhi]

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarifications. The first post by blip did not have arrows, so I was visualizing the vehicles moving the other way round (from right to left)

[Jr Godzilla]

Originally Posted by GTO

Right of way belongs to the person already *inside* the roundabout; sadly, very few people are aware of this or follow this.

right of way - it doesnt work like you said. its rather a "give way rule"

[Jr Godzilla]

Originally Posted by SuperSyn

Seems like we are discussing two issues at once, to illustrate what I am talking about...behold this five minute MS Paint atrocity in all its glory:

another victim - following rules myself.
if you were in the right lane following rules and someone on the left lane decides to take the shortcut (red path) you get side scrapped. more worse if you are a two wheeler rider - like myself.

it was only the bullets crash bar which held itself scrapping against the rear tyres of a 407 and assisted in the forced turn. if it was without crash bar the bike / myself could have been caught in the rear wheels for sure.

the trucker was visibly shaken after i overtook and made him stop dropping the bike infornt of his truck (kinda nana patekar style - yeshwant) - let him go as he was sahab sorry maaf kar do he knew his error seeing the rear view.

[spadival]

The other day a biker was trying to overtake my car while I was negotiating a round about, that too he was overtaking me from the left hand side !!

The end result was predictable.. Slight contact with my front bumper and he lost control and went straight on a tangent !! Obviously, I didnt even notice him coming as he was on the wrong side anyway, in a round about of all places.

Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. He quietly went on his way without a murmur. Probably realised he escaped lightly for his mistakes !!

[wanderernomad]

The correct method of taking a roundabout is IMHO as follows.
1. If you plan on going straight, you enter the roundabout in the outside lane stick to it along the curve and exit from outside lane itself.
2. If you plan to go to 3 oclock then you enter from inside lane and as you reach the 12o clock exit road you start moving to the outside lane ad exit from there.
3. If you want to come back i.ee take a U turn then you enter from the inside lane stick to it for the full arc as you reach your exit lane you move towards the outside lane and exit.

However what I see is that people approach the roundabout in a stright arrow trajectory and once near to the roundabout verge they turn and crowd the inside lanes and then even try to exit from the innermost lane thus disrupting the whole traffic flow.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by spadival

The other day a biker was trying to overtake my car while I was negotiating a round about, that too he was overtaking me from the left hand side !!

The end result was predictable.. Slight contact with my front bumper and he lost control and went straight on a tangent !! Obviously, I didnt even notice him coming as he was on the wrong side anyway, in a round about of all places.

Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. He quietly went on his way without a murmur. Probably realised he escaped lightly for his mistakes !!

There are many such nitwits riding bikes in Hyderabad. One guy overtakes you on the left and swerves right, forcing you to brake or veer right to avoid hitting his back. At the same time another guy overtakes you from the right and veers left! I wonder if there is a method to make my car thinner in such situations to avoid getting scraped on both sides.

[pjbiju]

At least in Pune, most of the roundabouts are about the size of a large donut. They could actually be used by the RTO to give licences to 2-wheeler drivers, provided they can drive around the donut without falling down.

Many of them are actually lamp posts in the middle of a junction. It really confuses the drivers about what to do. But at least in the places where the roundabouts are big enough, no body follows the rule.

[vennarbank]

I have seen both in Bangalore and Chennai [esp in T Nagar], the traffic police asking us to go the red line also so as to quickly reduce the traffic jam and i was struck with no option but to go in red. Lots of time near crash happens and none say a word. Maybe we are used to adjusting for everything - right or wrong does not matter.

[watashi75]

The following link shows a tutorial on negotiating a roundabout. It is important to make correct use of indicators in a roundabout.

Roundabouts-tutorials.com

[kutlee]

ripper, you are a master. poor ambys. better follow rules now.

[Abhijat]

Originally Posted by Jr Godzilla

right of way - it doesnt work like you said. its rather a "give way rule"

It is about fight your way slam bam.

Even if you want to give people right of way they just stop middle of the round about confused as to why you did not cross their path full speed
such is their ignorance.

Maybe we need a new set of traffic rules here.

Rules
1. The person entering the round about shall be the last to exit

2. The uglier your car the more right of way you have.

you can add more .

[prajwalkashyap]

There is another excellent article on negotiating roundabouts developed by vicroads in Melbourne, Australia. Basic rule is, ALWAYS give way to the person entering the roundabout from your right. That way, when u r entering the roundabout, the person on the left is waiting for you to pass, so that he can then enter the roundabout behind you.

This works well when the traffic is light. But when there is heavy traffic, like it is in London, traffic moves in batches of 2, so 2 cars enter the roundabout, then 2 cars from the left enter, then 2 cars from his left enter and so on, that way, 2 cars from each lane enter the roundabout in turns and the traffic flows smoothly all day. This inspite of having one lane only.

The following article is published by Vicroads in Melbourne.

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rd.../0/part_09.pdf

Cheers!

Prajwal

[Pal-leo]

Now eat this..

5 roundabouts within one..

Magic Roundabout (Swindon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

this one is sooo confusing..

[Tron]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

last month, was taking the green line around the roundabout. i had just overtaken 2 amby taxis and a cochin airport jeep before the roundabout.

I was fully expecting the 3 morons to take the red line, but they were not expecting me to take a U turn.

I timed it well, and glided through the gap between the jeep that was leading and the 1st amby taxi.
the 2 ambys didnt expect me.
1st one slams the brakes. 2nd one doesnt. satisfying crunch and tinkle of glass heard.didnt wait to get involved.
maybe, they will start following the rules now?

Nicely done, mate. Some fools only learn the hard way. I hope they can be taught that way without damage to life or limb of either party. Property damage is fair game.

Originally Posted by Tron

Nicely done, mate. Some fools only learn the hard way. I hope they can be taught that way without damage to life or limb of either party. Property damage is fair game.

I was not trying to make them crash. they were not travelling very fast(20-30kmph)

in fact, the amby didnt need to brake at all, if he had just kept his wits and continued at the same speed, nothing would have happened.we would have floated by each other with metres to spare.
I suspect, what happened was, the amby taxis were smarting from my earlier overtaking of them, and were trying to get back in front by taking the short cut.

Right now, I'm wondering what I should do the next time I'm in a similar situation. Seeing that, following the rules also causes accidents.

Was I responsible for the incident? Not sure about the rules there. maybe, I should have taken the U turn without going around the roundabout.
i.e- as soon as the median ended.
the problem is, If I'd braked there to take a U turn, the cars following would have had to make evasive maneuvers/brake hard.

can someone clear this up for me?
when I need to make a U turn on a road with fast moving traffic, do I use the roundabout, or do I use the Gap in the median just prior to the roundabout?

The 2 amby drivers probably, still, dont understand that what they did was illegal.