Quote:
Originally Posted by l2ridehd
The deputy sheriff is wrong. There is a very legal way to do what you want. The rules of a round-about state that you must yield to anyone already in the circle. THIS MEANS BOTH LANES. If you follow the rule of law, you should never be side by side another vehicle in a round about unless you are both entering from the same entrance in which case you would be taking a different exit in the example used. So as you approach your exit if you look, the center white line becomes a dotted white line meaning it is legal to change lanes for your exit. The real problem is that people do not follow the law and do really stupid things in these circles. Like go around 270 degrees in the outside lane, or enter using the left lane and take the first exit, or a new one in this thread, straddle the lanes.
A round about is a traffic light replacement. Nothing more. Would you go a four lane traffic right and make a left turn from the right lane? Would you make a right turn from the left lane? I certainly hope not.
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In my opinion, drivers acting on the belief, as stated in the last paragraph that one may change lanes while exiting, is precisely what causes chaos and accidents.
One may NOT change lanes across the dotted lines when exiting. The brochure states in the blue box.. Best Practices "Do not change lanes within the roundabout or AS YOU EXIT."
A review of the diagram in the brochure demonstrates that more than half of the area of the roundabout has dotted lines between lanes. The dotted lines for crossing a lane applies
only to those entering the roundabout and
not to those exiting.
While incoming traffic may be expected to yield when those in the roundabout are staying in their lane, if one changes lanes while exiting in order to get in the resident lane, an incoming driver coming into that lane will not anticipate such a move and may not have time to brake.
I thank you, and sincerely so, for your post. That one considers a roundabout to be a traffic light replacement underscores the need for all of us to understand how they are different. That dotted lines mean something different in a roundabout....well, no wonder CF is beside herself.