No legal way to exit roundabout to resident gate
 

The following was confirmed yesterday by a Sumter Deputy: There is a problem with design of roundabout exits into to Village gates that makes one particular maneuver impossible to safely and legally perform.

To follow using a diagram, click the brochure below and follow using the right side diagram. Let's say you are a resident entering the traffic circle in the car that is lowest on the diagram, intending to turn left (taking the 3rd exit)...

So you are in the proper lane, the inside lane. As you approach the 3rd exit, you see that the inside lane carries you to the visitor gate. But you are a resident. How can you change lanes against traffic that may be merging behind you?

My answer is you can't without violating lane change rules and crossing the path of oncoming drivers. In those situations, I use the visitor gate. I've had several near crashes. The deputy said that when there is a crash, "I try to figure out who's at fault." throws his hands in the air; gives a wry chuckle...what else can he do..

http://www.districtgov.org/community...t-02-08-12.pdf

I just split the lanes I try to stay right in the middle of both lanes that way I can go either way it keeps everybody behind me behind me kind of like being the pace car I know your frustration I sometimes worry does the light in the refrigerator really go out when you close the door!?

I believe there is an easy fix to this problem. As per the diagram, add an additional "Channelization Island" to force the inside lane driver who is turning left to the outside lane allowing that driver to pick either entrance. Whether or not this prevents the nut traveling in the same direction as you in the outside lane from rounding the circle to exit at the third exit is debatable. Take for example the roundabout at the St James gate. The south side of the roundabout has a "channelization island" forcing the driver to the outside lane in that part of the circle only but allowing that driver to either stay in the left lane to continue north on BV or stay right into the golf course. But the north side of the roundabout does not have the "channelization island" allowing both lanes to be active. The driver who is traveling north on BV and intends on entering the St James gate needs to drift from the inside lane to the outside lane (on the north side of the circle) to make the resident entrance and prevent vehicles traveling south on BV from merging into the the roundabout. I might be wrong but I think the Stillwater/Canal roundabout has two "channelization islands". Gotta love the term, channelization island!

The easiest fix would be to make the roundabouts one lane only. Traffic should have no issues during the non-snowbird season when The Villages is not at full capacity.

I do understand that they were designed as two lanes due to the traffic volumes.

I do understand your concern and my wife and I had many discussions when we come back "on campus". We drive 466A to BV Blvd north and take the ST. James gate to enter The Villages. We legally go into the inner or left lane and 3/4ths around change over into the Residents gate. Lots of times, due to traffic and yielding to some cars that don't know or are a bit more aggressive, we just stay in the left lane and go thru the Visitor gate.

There is the answer ... both from a right-of-way / legal and some times common sense perspective.

:popcorn::popcorn::icon_bored:

I've come to prefer the visitor gate not only for safety due to not changing lanes as in the OP, but also for convenience.
It lifts just the same as the resident gate with the electronic card, and...
the visitor electronic eye is usually farther from the gate itself than is the eye on the resident side.

This allows me to arrive at the eye quicker, gives me lead time to roll while the gate opens, does not force another lane merge after entry (as does the resident side)...
and I'm usually not in line as are more folks using the resident side. It expedites traffic all over TV if people use whichever gate is not backed up.

(My guess is the visitor gate is straighter and more direct because construction and trades traffic uses it for big vehicles.)

I'll tell ya who's at fault--the idiots who decided on roundabouts! I'm with Bonanza. I don't care what the studies show, this is not a safe area (elderly drivers, people not used to roundabouts who can't figure out the signs, crowded streets in the winter) to have roundabouts, much less two-lane roundabouts. A stop sign or traffic light every so often on BV and Morse would suffice.

Hey , at least you can go around again if you would otherwise get hit trying to get in the resident lane....:highfive:
feel like an idiot, but safe...

I shutter at the thought of the unmitigated horror that would be stop signs on BVB or Morse

No matter what...
 

Regardless of lane changing "best practices", I would never exit if there is a car to my right where I cannot safely exit from the left lane. Since there is no car to my right I can safely use whichever gate I wish.

There should never be a car to your right as you are exiting from the inside lane, unless they have entered the round about incorrectly. If they have done that I am not about to prove "I am right" by taking the exit in front of them.

PS. JMO, I feel much safer traversing a round-about than going through an intersection when the light is green. No one can kill me in a round about...

I don't believe it matters as you exit the round-about to a gate whether you use the visitor or resident lanes. Both work equally well and the same. In fact there are exit lanes on some of the newer gates that have the two lanes that are marked visitor/resident and resident.

:22yikes::22yikes:

I agree with most of what you say, except that... if you are in the inside lane, no matter which entrance you use, you have to cross over that outside lane to get to the gate. And there are so many people who don't yield when entering the roundabout because they think they don't have to if their lane is clear. That puts them frequently in the outside lane when you are crossing over.

If someone's at the yield sign as I pass it on the inside lane, I really keep an eye on them to see where they're going to end up vis-a-vis where I am when crossing over. That means I have to be looking at two places at once.

Roundabouts stink, IMO.