Hi,
I've recently passed my test and just looking for a bit of clarification about the rules surrounding something which happened over the weekend.
I was travelling towards Yorkshire this weekend on the A59. Can't remember exactly which roundabout this was but there was enough space for two cars side by side on approach but no lane markings or "GET IN LANE" signs to indicate where you should sit. I was going straight ahead, and without lane markers I hastily resorted to what I'd been taught in my lessons that if you're going straight ahead, and the road markings don't say otherwise, you can default to using the left hand lane, especially if you're not sure whether the turn off you want has two lanes and you don't want to accidentally end up in the fast lane (my car has a tiny engine and IIRC the whole setup was slightly uphill!)
The turn off wasn't directly ahead, it was slightly to the right, but my GPS called it "continue straight" so again this solidified my impression that I could safely use the left hand lane.
However having slowed down and double checked that no cars were coming from the right, I entered the roundabout at about 20mph, not indicating left or right (as far as I was concerned, I was going straight ahead, so no need for a signal until leaving the roundabout) but at that point someone entered the roundabout from the road to the left and I had to brake significantly in order to not hit her.
I think she must have thought from my position on the road that I was going to turn off on the first exit. However I've always been taught that you can only really trust the way people are indicating, and it's safer to assume that if they're not indicating they are going to continue round the roundabout.
I really think I wasn't doing anything wrong, or at least even if my intentions were unclear from my position on the road she still should have based her actions on my signals rather than guesswork.
If there had been a collision who would have been in the wrong?
Any advice too for this kind of roundabout without markings? I much prefer those with GET IN LANE board and road markings but it's knocked my confidence a bit to not be able to fall back to what I thought I knew of the highway code!
Thanks.
EDIT: Re-reading this, without markings on the road I'm not even sure "left hand lane" makes any sense in this case. I was simply positioned slightly to the left.
I've recently passed my test and just looking for a bit of clarification about the rules surrounding something which happened over the weekend.
I was travelling towards Yorkshire this weekend on the A59. Can't remember exactly which roundabout this was but there was enough space for two cars side by side on approach but no lane markings or "GET IN LANE" signs to indicate where you should sit. I was going straight ahead, and without lane markers I hastily resorted to what I'd been taught in my lessons that if you're going straight ahead, and the road markings don't say otherwise, you can default to using the left hand lane, especially if you're not sure whether the turn off you want has two lanes and you don't want to accidentally end up in the fast lane (my car has a tiny engine and IIRC the whole setup was slightly uphill!)
The turn off wasn't directly ahead, it was slightly to the right, but my GPS called it "continue straight" so again this solidified my impression that I could safely use the left hand lane.
However having slowed down and double checked that no cars were coming from the right, I entered the roundabout at about 20mph, not indicating left or right (as far as I was concerned, I was going straight ahead, so no need for a signal until leaving the roundabout) but at that point someone entered the roundabout from the road to the left and I had to brake significantly in order to not hit her.
I think she must have thought from my position on the road that I was going to turn off on the first exit. However I've always been taught that you can only really trust the way people are indicating, and it's safer to assume that if they're not indicating they are going to continue round the roundabout.
I really think I wasn't doing anything wrong, or at least even if my intentions were unclear from my position on the road she still should have based her actions on my signals rather than guesswork.
If there had been a collision who would have been in the wrong?
Any advice too for this kind of roundabout without markings? I much prefer those with GET IN LANE board and road markings but it's knocked my confidence a bit to not be able to fall back to what I thought I knew of the highway code!
Thanks.
EDIT: Re-reading this, without markings on the road I'm not even sure "left hand lane" makes any sense in this case. I was simply positioned slightly to the left.
