Roundabouts

I'm sure if they visited overseas they'd see everything but the way there roundabouts work. They'd see all the museums, all the finest resturants and us the tax payer would foot the bill.
I do argree with your comment, Though I do remember one roundabout in Paris that had no lines and was about 4-5 abreast, very hard to exit if you decided to go the inner lane.

Hello
I just think of a roundabout as a curved straight road. Imagine if 3 lane highways had no lanes marked. The idea of multi lanes is to remove conflict netween those who want to turn off sooner than later by encouraging people to choose the appropriate lane before they get there...obviously an issue for those who prefer to think about where they're going while on the roundabout. Cant see the problem myself - think ahead say ~300 metres. Obviousluy easier if you know the road but if anyone (me included) reaches a stage where thay cant do this they should maybe contemplate public transport and just read the paper.
Cheers
Greg

Roundabouts are simple..... laned roundabouts are simple as well! If you follow the lanes, you can't go wrong. If you're in the left lane, and that lane is marked to exit.... you exit! If you don't want that exit, and ignore the lane mark, and hit another car, then you are at fault!

"Perhaps our road engineers should make a visit overseas to see how it is done "

I agree with the answer regarding the restaurants and museums on that one... perhaps our drivers should be better educated.

I think that the most obvious cause of problems on Australian roads is arrogance. The concept of drivers that "I can speed safely"..... the I-can-drive-better-than-everyone-else syndrome..... the need to tailgate the car in front leaving only 1 car length at 100 kph, the "speed up so the bloke with his indicator on can't change lanes into the space in front of me"........ the list goes on and on and on and on.....

and we have all been guilty haven't we?????? ;-)

Hi Ray.
The big roundabout at Geraldton which worked so well for many years has now been done away with! This has been replaced with a flyover complete with the obligatory (in WA at least) traffic lights. To travel South now you drive up the ramp, stop at the lights and then if you've got time before the lights change again, turn left.
This 40 million dollar ballsup is of course the brain child of those brain dead idiots at Main Roads who have done all the overseas trip and then changed them for "WA conditions"!!!
Apparently it was to facilitate access for trucks to the port although I can't see how a rounbaout as large as the old one was could possibly have held them up.

In the northern suburbs of Perth they even plant their blasted lights a couple of hundred metres from roundabouts because "commercial interests pay for them" so that drivers can access shopping centres for a bit of impulse buying instead of making traffic use the roundabout for what it's for!
This complete ruins the free flow of vehicles because there is then large blocks of vehicles which have been held up while the lights stop everything for a few minutes.
The other prob. with roundabouts is Perth drivers refusing to allow others to change lanes even in the rare instance of them indicating their intentions!
But then why should their driving habits and ignorance change just because it's a roundabout.

Ray

I don't see the confusion.

Left lane if you're taking the first or second exit.
Right lane if you're taking the second exit or more.
Unless road markings indicate otherwise.

The confusion is only in people who choose to be ignorant. All this information is freely available on the web and at most newsagents for under $10.

R.

The roundabout in Bunbury has 2 lanes marked, and both lanes exit - no need to move across lanes to the exit. Seems to work well.

This is one of the only gripes I have. It's very simple. It's in the learner driver's handbook. Every driver shoud know how to use dual lane roundabouts before they ever get a licence.

Left lane: Left or straight. Right lane: Right or straight.

The number of drivers turning right from the left lane cutting me off and nearly causing an accident gets on my nerves. Most drivers know the rules but too many don't.

Barnesy

Regardless of the rules, dual lane roundabouts are bound to be associated with accidents because for one, roundabouts don't always replace a simple right angled intersection. There can be five or six feeding roads at any angle. Inevitably, people will need to cross from an inner lane to an outer lane (or they would keep going round the inner lane until the fuel ran out).
We have the dumb situation in the ACT were single lane roads widen to two lanes about 30 meters before roundabouts, then narrow down again soon after. Why? All it does is tempt people to overtake the slow turkey who wants to 'give way to the right' at the roundabout (god knows there are a few).
If you really want to see gross traffic mismanagemet come to the ACT. Roundabouts gone mad. Traffic lights almost everywhere, including those infuriating red arrows that stop you turning in front of the non-existent oncoming traffic. Intelligent traffic lights? Yeah right - programmed by intellectual pygmies. If you don't reach the sensor at the stop line about ten seconds before the lights change you miss a whole cycle (so you have to race up the stop line, slam on the brakes, hoping you have registered in the 'brain' of the traffic light.
I could go on, but the stupidity of the cretins responsible for traffic management in the ACT leaves me speachless every time I drive there (most days). One of the reasons I love going bush I guess.