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Near Miss of the Day 24: Drivers who don't know how to use roundabouts

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s County Armagh

Roundabouts, pioneered by the UK's Transport Research Laboratory in the 1960s, are designed to improve traffic flow and minimise the risk of collisions between motor vehicles at junctions. 

But they can present particular risks to cyclists for a number of reasons including motorists accelerating into the roundabout to make it into a gap, switching lanes suddenly after realising they were in the wrong one, cutting across the rider's line to get to their exit, being distracted by road signs as they try to work out which exit to take, and that old staple, simply not seeing them.

Our latest Near Miss of the Day features two videos from road.cc reader Paul Wharton, who lives in Craigavon, County Armagh. The first, above, shows a driver pulling out onto a roundabout into his path, the second, a driver who takes the wrong lane into a roundabout for the exit he or she is heading for - both occurrences that will be familiar to anyone who cycles on UK roads.

Paul told us: "We have a high number of roundabouts and lots of motorists have no idea how to use them."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launched its first close pass operation in Belfast in April this year.

> Close pass initiative launched in Northern Ireland as part of #seethecyclist campaign

Last month, the PSNI said it would be extending the initiative across Northern Ireland, and that as part of its #seethecyclist campaign officers would also be joining in on club rides.

> #seethecyclist: Police officers to join club rides as part of Northern Ireland close pass operation

That move followed the death a few days previously of Gavin Moore, who was killed when a driver crashed into him and fellow members of North Down Cycling Club while they were on a ride.

> Video: Hundreds ride to funeral of cyclist killed in Northern Ireland

Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.

If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.

If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).

Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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11 comments

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MartyMcCann | 6 years ago
2 likes

Roundabouts are one of the defining features of Craigavon so the fact so many of the people driving there are crap at using them is particularly annoying. It is so bad that they actually had to paint arrows on the road on the big roundabout which follows the one in the second video so that people know what lane to be in- but it still doesn't help.    I live less than 1km fom the one in the second video- in fact I normally use it as I head out on my rides and it is no joke that the one reason I can't give it all when out on my bike is that I need to keep something in reserve to actually get across that roundabout on the way home.

 

The best of it is that when Craigavon was being designed as a new city in the 60s and 70s it was way ahead in regards thinking around safe cycling infrastructure. But the project stalled and while there is still a lot of decent paths it left a mish-mash of  infrastructure that resulted in roundabouts that weren't needed and roads that were initially planned and built to be part of an extended motorway now going through built up areas meaning drivers are even less likely to adhere to speed limits.

 

 

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embattle | 6 years ago
0 likes

It is still amazing how many people get confused by rounadbouts even though they are simple, I cross only one major one across the A316 every day and without fail someone is in the wrong lane for the exit they want to use or blocks the keep clear bit etc.

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davel | 6 years ago
2 likes

@craigstitt - there's something about bikes that does seem to separate them from logic and induce MGIF.

1km section of my commute, straight and flat, 20mph speed limit, goes past a school. Always clear on my runs both ways so I'm  doing 17ish-23ish (ahem) depending on wind etc.

As far as I can tell, I  am overtaken by EVERY SINGLE CAR that is behind me on that stretch. Since I 'observed' this a few months ago, I've been pretty intrigued so I watch for any that might hold back. I haven't noticed any. It's insane. I want to film it. I haven't noticed anything else that's Twilight Zoney about this road.

After the overtake, about 50% just show that they don't give a shit about the speed limit and hare off, predictably. The other half itself is roughly split in two - people who pretend they're doing 20, but really anything less than 30 will do. Then the remainder continue to observe the speed limit at about the speed I'm going.

I'd like to walk through the thought process of people who think they're careful and law-abiding drivers, and decide to break the speed limit to overtake a bike doing the speed limit, to then do the same speed as (or slower than) the bike. Some seem like really impatient arses (or nervous overtakers), revving, looking for the gap.... to do 20mph in front of me doing 20mph.

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TriTaxMan | 6 years ago
2 likes

The MGIF attitude or the SMIDSY (or as I like to call it the catchy SMISYBDGAF [Sorry mate I saw you but don't give a f*@k]) is the primary cause for most roundabout issues involving cyclists.

The first incident is a fairly common occurance on my commuting where I cross a roundabout without needing to stop.  Car drivers quite often have their view obscured by pillars and therefore miss cyclists approaching or on a roundabout where they would see a car approaching.

The second incident is again a fairly common occurance, car drivers just trying to take the racing line as much as they can.  It happens both on the entrance to and exit from roundabout....because car's have right of way on the roads

But some drivers are just bell ends.... and no amount of complaining will do anything about that.  I have just about been collected on my commute home at one particular roundabout by multiple car drivers.  They go in the right hand lane of two at a roundabout so that they can turn left..... and the reason they have to go into the right hand lane??? because the bloody cyclist is in the left hand lane and the car MGIF..... despite the fact that I am positioned in the right half of my lane (because I am going straight on).  

When will car drivers learn that many cyclists can beat them away from a junction/set of lights..... just saying yes

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burtthebike | 6 years ago
5 likes

The biggest problem with roundabouts is the number of cars with defective indicators.  Some seemingly new vehicles have indicators which don't work at roundabouts, but they usually work at other junctions.  I think the DfT should investigate this phenomenon and revise the construction and use regs.

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WillRod | 6 years ago
0 likes

In the first one it is a MGIF wpcombined with slow acceleration by the car.

in the second, the cyclist should have been in a more dominant postpition to prevent being squeezed out.

 

Poor lane discipline on roundabouts is a problem for drivers too. Two inidents at work in the last 6 months due to vans and lorries changing lanes and that's with a workforce of 8 people! We do do a lot of business mileage though.

The A1 / A14 roundabout is the bane of my life. I am always on the alert to drivers moving lanes midway round the roundabout. 

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Yorkshie Whippet | 6 years ago
5 likes

IMHO

That second one had nothing to do with the roundabout initially. It was a deliberate squeeze on the cyclist. The fact their piss poor lane discipline afterwards was also captured shows a low level of awareness. 

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Dave the Drivin... | 6 years ago
4 likes

The second driver was way too far to the left for the right turn she eventually took. They also, by the looks of things, did not check their left-hand mirror before coming over. Piss poor driving without a doubt.

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psling replied to Dave the Driving Instructor | 6 years ago
0 likes

Dave the Driving Instructor wrote:

The second driver was way too far to the left for the right turn she eventually took. They also, by the looks of things, did not check their left-hand mirror before coming over. Piss poor driving without a doubt.

 

She? Someone you know?  Right turn? They indicated to leave at the 2nd exit. Check their left-hand mirror? Yes, but they would most likely have been looking right for traffic coming around the roundabout; you would hope that they saw the cyclist in front of them before reaching the roundabout! Piss poor driving without a doubt? Couldn't agree with you more!

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psling | 6 years ago
3 likes

 "...the second, a driver who takes the wrong lane into a roundabout for the exit he or she is heading for - both occurrences that will be familiar to anyone who cycles on UK roads." 

In a piece titled "Drivers who don't know how to use roundabouts" I find the above a bit worrying. Nothing wrong or illegal about that driver's lane choice.

The impatient overtake and resultant close pass approaching the roundabout was well out of order though.

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Jimmy Ray Will replied to psling | 6 years ago
0 likes

psling wrote:

 "...the second, a driver who takes the wrong lane into a roundabout for the exit he or she is heading for - both occurrences that will be familiar to anyone who cycles on UK roads." 

In a piece titled "Drivers who don't know how to use roundabouts" I find the above a bit worrying. Nothing wrong or illegal about that driver's lane choice.

The impatient overtake and resultant close pass approaching the roundabout was well out of order though.

Potentially, and I mean potentially the driver in the second video was moving into the right hand lane as they went out of shot... so they may have not been exiting on the next exit, and therefore entering in the wrong lane... .maybe.

as you say, the focus should be the unnecessary and potentially dangerous overtake on the approach. 

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