Something happened to me recently that I would like to share with you all and reflect on, why some people fail their Driving Test at multi lane roundabouts for changing lanes:
We were waiting to join a multi lane roundabout (3 lanes) and taking the first exit, several vehicles were in the middle lane, so one would assume that it is fairly safe to pull left into the left lane and exit onto a dual carriageway. We were signalling left and no signals were being given by the traffic in the middle lane that would be exiting into the right hand lane of the dual carriageway or continuing around the roundabout, but as we began to move a motorcyclist started signalling left, moved into our lane causing us to stop immediately.
The motorcyclist waved his fist at us and continued on.
There are several questions here:
Should the motorcyclist have signalled left 2 exits before the exit he needed?
Should the motorcyclist have stayed in his own lane and changed after exit?
Should we have waited till all lanes were clear?
There is a rule we have at Reality: If you Don’t know – Don’t Go. We were very sure we were ok but it’s a good job we looked right again.
So next time you join a multi-laned roundabout and find yourself in the wrong lane, stick with it and find a way to turn around afterwards.
The consequences of the motorcyclist changing lanes could have been disastrous!
Interesting article. I’ve got my test tomorrow and wanted to ask one question.
On driving school websites, I constantly read that you should stick to the same lane on multi-lane roundabouts, until your exit – However, every time I take multi-lane roundabouts, I end up changing to another lane to the left whilst in the roundabout, before my exit. Note: My lane on approach was the correct one, and to my left was for another direction – but it changes during the roundabout.
I can’t tell if I’m supposed to stick to my lane until the exit or whether I’m supposed to come onto the left during the roundabout – if I’m going straight or takin the third/fourth exit for example.