540º on a roundabout.

Failed my first test for not going around again so I’m conditioned to do it. Saves time too!

How can it be a negative impact if some vehicles enter that junction via a left lane or a right lane? Surely if a vehicle travels down an empty right lane then waits in the right lane before entering the junction and travels 540 degrees before exiting – all it does is shorten the queue in the left hand lane for moment….? It doesn’t reduce the capacity of the junction, or the exit?

Traffic going round the roundabout has priority over traffic joining it. A car going 540º instead of 180º is spending 3 times as long blocking other cars from getting onto the roundabout.

Nothing wrong with it at all, compared to texting, using a laptop, reading and all the other dim witted actions I see on the road every day in the 40 k miles I do a year I’ve Been known to do it if I can be arsed. I’m pretty sure the majority of commuters won’t even notice it’s happened.

I would do it.

HTH.

Well the nobber’s car spends approximately 3 times as long in the junction and crosses at least two entrances which traffic heading in the direction the nobber is going otherwise wouldn’t cross, so directly holding up vehicles trying to use the junction from those entrances. It’s hard to see how it doesn’t affect the capacity of the junction for traffic entering from those roads.

You’re on the list

HTH

..but he’s got the kettle on half an hour before you lot still sat at the roundabout.

It’s just not British.

So if the exit is full it could have an impact. If the exit is empty on a typical multi-lane island, probably not so much.

Thankfully, I understand the priority at roundabouts! 😀

Ooooh, I’m all conflicted. It feels like it’s a shit trick to pull but if (and really only if) all the other approaches have short queues AND the exit you want is free-running after the roundabout, then the dicks are actually evening things out at what might be an imbalanced traffic flow that maybe should be light-controlled.

Still, dicks gonna dick whatever I think

Depends…if no direction arrows on road then either lane can go straight on, typically left lane for left or straight on and right lane for right or straight on if no markings or other indicators and left lane is rammed…

If the exit is full then it simply has the effect of queue jumping and holding up traffic coming from other directions as described above. If the exit is empty, then the impact is potentially higher, as the traffic going in the direction the nobber is going is limited by the junction capacity – which the nobber has just decreased, so the queue in that direction is actually likely to be lengthened.

I don’t get it either. Why do 1.5 laps?

Isn’t a 540 just a glorified U turn?

Assuming the OP meant 720 or 360 then absolutely not thats very rude and non british.

Howevever… doing a 270 to turn left yes I do that fairly often, somehow thats OK in my mind, no idea why they should be different !

I’d say this one is fair game.

Watch out for big roundabouts with traffic lights on though. Nothing worse than sitting at a red light watching all of those cars which were behind you drive past!

Fair game I say. Switching lanes every 2 mins in slow moving traffic is for bell ends though.

I don’t see any issue with it, then I’m not a great considerate driver who worries about the feelings of others because I see a more efficient route home. As long as no laws are broken and it is only feelings, then what is the problem?

Most people who would be bothered by it are only pissed off because they were either too dumb to think about it or too scared.

Very clever OP, we now have a list of all the nobbers on the forum whose opinions we don’t have to take seriously any more 😆

but he’s got the kettle on half an hour before you lot still sat at the roundabout.

Unlikely most poor driving manoeuvres save only seconds.

Ah but many seconds add up, fair to assume there is more than 1 time saving exercise on the go…

^ He gets it 🙂

I believe the correct term is ‘making progress’. 🙂

I’ve done it once or twice, normally on unfamiliar roads when you’re in the outside and miss the end of the left-turning queue. You can either sit there holding up traffic in your lane hoping some passive aggressive IT manager will stop pretending to ignore you and let you back in, or cruise serenely round as they sit there boiling their piss.

It’s nearly as awful as people who don’t queue properly for the self-serve checkouts at my local Tesco. Death’s too good for them!

Is this in a car or on a bicycle?

“wonder what the percentage of people who think this is ok are also tories.”

Nah, it’ll be a socialist thing. The I haven’t got it but some one else has so its ok to steal it idea. 😆

I do this all the time. Don’t see what’s wrong with it

Isn’t a 540 just a glorified U turn?

I see where you’re coming from. But the OP isn’t saying how many degrees you’ve turned through, he’s talking about the angle between your incoming and outgoing paths. So 180º and 540º are straight on.

It doesn’t affect the overall capacity of the junction or the flow of traffic, you’ll still get the same number of cars flowing through the junction. However, it does create a sense of injustice for the people who obey the rules of the road. It’s is blatant queue jumping. Just the same as if you were to walk to the front of a queue at the supermarket check-out. It wouldn’t take long for people behind you to tell you where to go. If everyone did it then the second lane and roundabout would very quickly become clogged up affecting the flow of the other roads leading to that roundabout and the inside ‘proper’ lane would grind to a halt as they would have to give way to those on the roundabout.

It’s rude. It’s arrogant, it’s provocative. You’re not breaking any rules in the black and white interpretation, but you are breaking the obvious intent of the rules. People who do it are d***s. There is alot of d***ish behaviour you see on the roads every day and this is one.

Go for it. I have no problem remembering drivers that do this and move onto the roundabout slow enough to all the car behind me and the one behind that on at the same time leaving you trapped on the inside lane.
People that do the extra lap of the roundabout to jump queues just spoil the flow at the roundabout making the situation worse.

Strictly for bell ends with no manners & little patience.

the angle between your incoming and outgoing paths. So 180º and 540º are straight on.

If you don’t turn, the angle is 0. If you turn left or right, it’s 90, if you go back on yourself, it’s 180.

Not far from my house there is a T junction. 90% of traffic turns right, thats fine. Its a 2 lane exit with enough space for maybe 4 cars in each lane before it goes back to a single lane feed.
Traffic coming from left and right can be heavy , so it can take a minute or so to exit.
The local boy racers turn left , then use the next right turn entrance/exit to pull a quick 180′ and re- enter the traffic flow , just to avoid sitting in a short queue.

What if the queue’s only backed up behind the junction because there’s roadworks and a “merge in turn in 800 yards” and everyone’s insisting on leaving the right lane empty because it’s the right and proper British thing to do?

What if the queue’s only backed up behind the junction because there’s roadworks and a “merge in turn in 800 yards” and everyone’s insisting on leaving the right lane empty because it’s the right and proper British thing to do?

Dear god! I can’t live my life on “What ifs”.

What we need are signs! Brits love signs and will generally accept anything if told to do so. Case in point. Drive through the Scottish highlands on narrow roads and there are signs clearly saying “Please use passing places to allow faster traffic to pass”. Rarely do you need to go further than the first passing place for a slower car to let you by. Now we don’t have those signs in Wales and you can sit behind a slow moving tourist admiring the view for miles and miles. They would never consider letting you past as they have not had it justified by signage.
In germany there are frequently signs where 2 lanes become one saying “use both lanes and merge like a zip”. And guess what, no single queue with d**ks pushing in at the front, just a steady merging of 2 equal length lines of traffic.

I’m pretty sure the majority of commuters won’t even notice it’s happened.

Quite. Far too busy with Fb/coffee/ personal grooming/changing radio stations/aircon/whatever to notice one particular car out of dozens.
Unless you’re driving something like a Challenger SRT which might attract some attention, but otherwise as above.

Well that’s where your theory fails. On a short bit of 2 lane DC local to me* which merges into one they have signs saying use both lanes when queuing. When I last drove that way the left lane was solid all the way back to the previous roundabout – I was in the lane on the roundabout which exits onto the right lane, so cruised up an empty lane almost to the front. I don’t know if that makes me a dick, but I know it’s actually the correct thing to do in such circumstances, so I did it fairly slowly to avoid looking like too much of a nobber and didn’t feel at all guilty. I think part of the problem there (apart from that whole bit of road being a dogs breakfast) is that before the roundabout it’s a SC only splitting into 2 lanes just before the roundabout – the right lane is signed to go straight on and I routinely use it, but I think a lot of drivers are too stupid to do so.

*the next junction after is a roundabout where I’ve seen people doing similar to as described in the OP – at that roundabout it definitely uses up capacity and makes traffic flow worse.

In germany there are frequently signs where 2 lanes become one saying “use both lanes and merge like a zip”. And guess what, no single queue with d**ks pushing in at the front, just a steady merging of 2 equal length lines of traffic.

Yeah, sadly the signs that say “use both lanes when queuing” are a step too far for some british motorists. Last week we came across a caravan who felt it his duty to block both lanes to prevent anyone doing so. Have had similar issues at other roadworks with these signs. Genuinely curious to know what these people think those signs mean.

It doesn’t affect the overall capacity of the junction or the flow of traffic

Seriously? OK, for simplicity imagine a single lane roundabout operating at capacity i.e. you’ve got queues on all approaches and traffic is circulating on the roundabout such that every time someone pulls off at an exit, someone waiting to join from that road pulls into the gap they left. Now imagine if everyone on the roundabout does an extra 360 before pulling off. The frequency of gaps appearing for people to pull into has more than halved, meaning all queues are moving at least twice as slowly.

A multi-lane roundabout as described by the OP doesn’t really change anything: as the traffic doing the 540 trick completes their extra turn, they’ll be sat in the lane that the “proper” queue is trying to pull into.

Doing the 360degree+ trick at a roundabout is obviously selfish, something to be reserved for occasional in a massive hurry situation.

I’ve had roundabout traffic models that initially have about half the queueing/delay that is actually occuring on site and only after adding the indirect route choices has the model validated to the much longer queues actually taking place.

What can happen is that once the queues hit a certain threshold the most selfish people take the indirect route, which makes the queue longer to the extent that slightly less selfish people also start to take the indirect route, etc.

If you don’t turn, the angle is 0. If you turn left or right, it’s 90, if you go back on yourself, it’s 180.

Almost correct. Cannot go anti clockwise arouns the roundabout (unless it is magic) so right turn will be 270deg not 90.

It doesn’t affect the overall capacity of the junction or the flow of traffic

I am suprised that even to a lay person it is not obvious that this is not the case.
Just think about yourself at the give way line, you are waiting for a suitable gap in traffic approaching to your right before you can proceed. If knobbers from your approach are doing a 540 then they are adding to the traffic on your right and making you wait longer for a gap.
Not only that but traffic in the lanes adjacent to you are also affected
Not only that but traffic on all the other approaches to the roundabout are affected.