One for the Singletrack driving gods:

I was approaching this roundabout today (StreetView) in the left hand lane, intending to take the second exit.

On approach I see a car on the outside lane of the roundabout about to turn off, and a motorbike in the middle lane next to the car.

Both are a safe distance away, so I pull onto the roundabout in the outside lane.

As I pass the first exit I realise the motorbike is now on my right hand side and is about to go in front of my car to take the exit.

Emergency stop – biker is already in the “oh shit” position, hand out ready to bounce off the car – but he makes it round me and carries on his way.

So I’m now ruminating on it, trying to figure out what went wrong and what I would do differently next time.

Being a cyclist I do try to watch out for and take extra care around bikes (pedal and motorised) but this time I messed up and nearly clobbered someone. 😳

I assume that the biker thought I was taking the first exit with him and he was aiming for outside lane on that exit (which has 3 lanes).

So perhaps my intention to take the 2nd exit wasn’t clear enough from my road position? (I wasn’t indicating at that point)

I should also probably have clocked him in my wing mirror before he appeared in my field of view, but my focus was on the traffic joining the roundabout from the 1st exit.

Any other thoughts or comments?

Prepare to be lynched? This is STW…

You should not have been indicating for 2nd exit, so you were correct.

The motorcyclist just learned why the outside lane is preferable for exiting the roundabout.

He may also have been going fast. There’s a similar roundabout near me where people hoon around it which gives you basically no time to pull out. So you floor it when you can and they have to brake, and give you all sorts of aggro. Well, if you weren’t going so bloody fast there wouldn’t be an issue.

That situation (not yours necessarily) is an example of aggressive driving and speed forcing other people to be technically in the wrong without it actually being their fault.

I guess the only thing you could have done differently would be to indicate right (even though you’re effectively going straight-on).

Sounds like the biker made a bad judgement call IMO.

Prepare to be lynched? This is STW…

Happy to be if I can learn something from it.

Edit: Ignore me, wrong end of stick.

Also, motorcyclist should not be passing people on roundabouts just before making manoevures.

Good reactions OP! Sounds like that could have been horrible.

he was on the roundabout you chose to enter the roundabout fully aware he was using it.. your bang to rights mate
itll no doubt be being debated right now on bikesonroundabouts/forum.com now how a STW contributor through his negligence nearly took the life of an innocent forum member..

left lane 1st exit, 2nd exit, right lane for the others .. that’s what I was taught and what highway code suggests. Less and less seem to take heed though. ANOTHER EDIT I learnt to drive in Swindon in the 90’s btw /ANOTHER EDIT

yah yah I know every ’bout is different and depends on how many lanes in and how many lanes out but the above is the default framework.

I’d say you were right EDIT in terms of lane usage at least /EDIT, just depends on speed judgement of you of the motorbike and the motorbike of you.

Both are a safe distance away

Obviously not. Bikes can accelerate way faster than a car and as he was in the middle lane I would expect him to be going for [your first exit] – if he was in the right hand lane (closest to the island) I would expect him to be going around to the same exit as you.
I think I would have been in the right hand lane for taking the second exit.
Your mistake I think.

bit confused when you say you pull onto the roundabout in the outside lane. do you mean the left most or right most?

If you were the black puegeot in the streetview and the first exit is the main road and the second is that B road then I would say you should be in the left most lane leading up the roundabout and go round the roundabout in the left most lane. Unless there is an arrow on the approach road saying that the left most lane is for immediate left turn only (ie a left arrow on the lane and not a left and straight ahead or no arrow).

If you did all that okay and pulled out into a safe gap then I would suggest the motorcyclist was in the wrong in trying to overtake too late before the exit.

Or you miss-judged the gap.

sounds like he may not have realised your intention and may have been a bit eager to get past you without checking your indictaions or lack of, put it down to one of those things, at least is sounds as though you were in the correct lane and indicated at the correct time and you knew your surroundings. As long as no one was hurt everyone is ok. put it down to one of those things…

Are you saying the biker took the 1st exit?

Outside lane == right hand lane.

Bikes can accelerate way faster than a car

Yes, but a roundabout is not the place for such acceleration.

If the motorcyclist had been going nice and slowly there would have been no issue, as far as I can see.

he was on the roundabout you chose to enter the roundabout fully aware he was using it.. your bang to rights mate

this

Outside lane == right hand lane.

That didn’t make it any clearer.

Also, motorcyclist should not be passing people on roundabouts just before making manoevures.

One of us has got this wrong.
The bike was already on the roundabout coming from another road on the right. He didn’t overtake anyone, he was just going round the roundabout.
GrahamS misjudged the speed he was coming and effectively pulled out in front of him.
Or I’ve completely mis-read the OP.

We need a scale drawing or a scale Lego model….

If the motorcyclist had been going nice and slowly there would have been no issue, as far as I can see.

why should the motorcyclist go ‘nice and slowly’ just because someone chose to pull out when it wasn’t clear to do so?

You screwed up – how can you have been a safe distance away if suddenly he was right in front of you after you entered the roundabout? Sure some motorbikes accelerate ridiculously and dangerously quickly going through roundabouts but everyone knows this and it should be commonsense you don’t ‘go for a gap’ when one of the vehicles approaching is a motorbike.

left lane 1st exit, 2nd exit, right lane for the others .. that’s what I was taught and what highway code suggests.

The Highway Code is pretty vague. It says left for left, right for right and “When taking any intermediate exit, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise select the appropriate lane on approach to and on the roundabout”

Bikes can accelerate way faster than a car

No doubt and the fact he caught me suggests that he did just that. I wasn’t really expecting him to accelerate hard on a roundabout though.

It’s quite possible I misjudged his speed, but when I pulled on I had judged that if he was turning left then I’d be well out of his way before he did so.

bit confused when you say you pull onto the roundabout in the outside lane. do you mean the left most or right most?

Sorry, yeah outside lane of the roundabout, leftmost.

If you were the black puegeot in the streetview and the first exit is the main road and the second is that B road then I would say you should be in the left most lane leading up the roundabout and go round the roundabout in the left most lane.

Yep that was what I did. Joined from left hand lane on entrance on B1426, stayed in left hand lane of roundabout aiming for 2nd exit to B1426.

On approach I see a car on the outside lane of the roundabout about to turn off, and a motorbike in the middle lane next to the car.

Graham, by ‘outside lane’ I presume you mean the left hand lane (furthest from the island) and he was turning left immediately before your position on the roundabout.
If the bike was in the lane next to him (and there are three lanes), where did you think he was going?

Sorry, yeah outside lane of the roundabout, leftmost.

If I was in the bikes position and saw a car pulling onto the roundabout in front of me in the left hand lane I was presume he was turning left.

Are you saying the biker took the 1st exit?

Yep – he took 1st exit (from my perspective – probably “straight on” from his)

My bad re: outside lane == rightmost, on r’bouts the outside lane is the leftmost lane.

If I wanted to go straight on i.e. go past the first exit and take the second exit then I would have got into the middle lane, not the left hand (outside) lane. This is where you went wrong IMO.

(unless there were road markings/signs to indicate which lane to use)

Give way to traffic on the roundabout. Dosen’t matter what speed he’s going at molgrips it is up to you to judge it & give way. To the OP if there are three lanes on the exit it is quite ok to be in the middle lane to exit. Your streeview doesn’t really help out as there doesn’t seem to be any ‘lanes’ at all on the roundabout itself. I don’t know the road but given the apparent width of the 1st exit I would( personally) be in the RH lane on approach if I wanted to go straight on. Still. No-one died, move on.

Knock him off , then get out and beat him to death with tyre lever .

It’s the Nordschleife way with bikers !

I’m am joking before anyone starts. 🙂

Still. No-one died

Graham – check for flat baby robins on your way home!

At what point did the m/c put his left indicator on to exit ?
i.e. was it already on as you pulled onto the roundabout ? (hope not !)

Dosen’t matter what speed he’s going at molgrips it is up to you to judge it & give way

Well, in the case I’m talking about, you can’t even see them before it’s too late. So you have to just hope. The view is obscured by trees, similar to the OP’s image except that there it’s a mound of earth and a tree.

If the bike was in the lane next to him (and there are three lanes), where did you think he was going?

I thought he was most likely going for the 1st exit (the one which he did take), or possibly the 2nd where I was going.

But I expected him to pass behind me if he was going for the 1st or stay behind me till the 2nd – as I judged I’d be out of his way before the 1st exit (I accept it is possible I either misjudged his speed or just didn’t factor in that he would accelerate hard when he got to the straight)

There’s a junction like this under the Mancunian way, multiple lane exit from a roundabout.

I avoid it because of the issue of vehicles on the inside of the roundabout turning off it across the outside lane.

Doesn’t matter who’s right if one person interprets things differently…

Sounds like you convinced yourself that he was *not* turning off at the exit after yours, and you were wrong. Why did you assume that?

Gladly the whole thing has just been a learning experience.

molgrips – Member
So you floor it when you can and they have to brake, and give you all sorts of aggro. Well, if you weren’t going so bloody fast there wouldn’t be an issue.
That situation (not yours necessarily) is an example of aggressive driving and speed forcing other people to be technically in the wrong without it actually being their fault.

Is this from your “special” edition of the Highway Code?

Is this from your “special” addition of the Highway Code?

🙂

Op was in the correct lane imo.
Right hand lane for exits 12 o’clock or after according to signage not layout of roundabout . Looking at the sign post further back down the road 2nd exit is before 12 o’clock therefor approach in left hand lane .

GrahamS – Member

“Are you saying the biker took the 1st exit?”

Yep – he took 1st exit (from my perspective – probably “straight on” from his)

Then from the distance involved (you joining the r’about to him exiting) you definitely pulled out in front of him.

Maybe you dithered a little, or “did a molgrips” as we like to say in these parts?

SOunds like the MC was going faster than you judged, and I’m guessing wasn’t indicating (no one does on roundabouts which doesn’t help), but as you were goin straight on you were very like to intersect his path so the fault with you I think.

Good that you are thinking about it and not just going “bloody people, I’m right blah blah”

I get you now. I always assume the ‘outside lane’ to be the right most like on a straight road ‘pulling into the outside lane to overtake’.

For that roundabout I would have said left most for 1st exit (dual carriageway) and 2nd exit.

Middle lane for 2nd lane (if one there) on the 2nd exit and 3rd exit.

Right lane for going further round 4th and so on.

The approach road has 2 lanes but the roundabout 3 so left goes to left and right approach to either middle or right on the roundabout, unless there is dotted lines indicating otherwise(ie directing the right approach into the right most lane).