We noticed a local roundabout got updated from having a right arrow to an ahead arrow. Firstly we had never noticed people going round the roundabout the wrong way prior to the change, however what we noticed after the change was a lot of cars in the right hand lane assuming they can go ahead, which along with people in the left hand who also had an ahead arrow meant lots of near misses coming off the roundabout where people in the right lane "cut off" those in the left lane when both exit the roundabout - it is a very dangerous set up.
I do like these types of videos Richard, id say they're 85% educational (and they are educational) and 15% you airing your grievances with British roads 😂
Too many idiot drivers about that turn right from a left-hand lane - they need all the education they can get, probably don't see these vids though sadly.
It's my turn to share this today-I passed my driving test! A huge thanks for all the excellent videos you’ve created Richard. I truly believe your videos have helped save countless lives by reaching to so many viewers that you deserved. Definitely gonna keep watching and learning to be a safer and confident driver on road!
Brilliant. As a foreigner driving for a living in this country I find these type of videos super helpful in understanding the logic behind the design of various types of junctions in the UK. Thanks for that, liked and subbed.
Using the safety argument, I believe that an ahead arrow in the right lane can be downright dangerous, because it encourages people, well, to go ahead! This can bring traffic into conflict where the entrance has 2 lanes and the ahead exit has only 1 lane. I've been in this exact situation myself at a new roundabout. Come on road designers, we ALL know that we go clockwise around a roundabout, no-one who has passed their test should be in any doubt about that.
Trouble is, you don't necessarily have people driving here who have passed a UK driving test. Many countries can transfer their license and many more allow a new entrant to drive for a year prior to getting their UK license.
I passed my license test yesterday. Am officially licensed. Ohh this channel played a big part in my development. I live in Namibia and ur videos were good everything. Thank you. May God bless you Mr Teacher
For my students I describe this as a continuation arrow. So in right lane you would just continue ahead in that lane to the right. Near me there are also forward arrows that lead left. Therefore if you have a lane to follow with a forward arrow you should just follow the lane around and not cross the dashed line unless absolutely necessary
I've been driving for 40+ years and this video is really interesting, about something I've noticed, but now 'ignore', though the road markings do occasionally make me question my satnav information. So, all in all, I completely agree with your points made... and implied! Useful.
Hi Richard. I’m a driving instructor in Hull and these lane markings are a nightmare to explain to pupils. 100% agree with everything you said. Thank you for all your videos 🙂
I remember years ago the local council resurfacing a roundabout near us and they replaced the Right turn arrow with an Ahead arrow. This then caused confusion with other road users attempting to go ahead in the right hand lane which caused the exact issue you mentioned @7:14 The chair of our local driving instructors association contacted the council who explained that it’s in case someone turns right directly onto the roundabout. The chairman’s reaction was “ direct “ he said to the council employee “ We are in Manchester pal. If someone has come over from Hull or Dover, they’d have messed a roundabout up well before they get to our area “ 🤣 I see both sides of the coin to be fair and I agree with everything you said in this video.
Thanks for this video Richard. I used to watch your and a few other similar channels when first learning to drive several years ago. I'm now a HGV driver and navigating new roundabouts in new places while everyone makes it their life's mission to get ahead of you is quite challenging, and this particular topic is something I've been scratching my head over.
Thank you Richard, I am one of those foreign drivers who has found the roundabouts so confusing and quite scary. Although I am sure I wouldn't turn right in the wrong direction😂. I have gone straight in the right lane instead of turning right and got the hooting of my life so you are very "right" in your analogy
I always go by the rule of turning left or going straight take the left hand lane and if turn right take the right. The exception to this is if I know straight ahead is two lanes then I may take the right lane if there is less traffic queued there. But always assume that the car to the left or right of you on a roundabout is in the wrong lane and likely to cut in front of you.
Hi Richard! I rarely leave comments on social media, but i wanted to say thank uou for your tremendous work! I know you are posting once in few weeks, i wish you could do more. I believe it might be boring already and not that exciting as when you started the channel. But you helped so many people! I hope you will reach 1mil soon! I have a test on 9th and i hope i will pass 😂 thankd again for your knowledge!
I'm from Cyprus where traffic rules are mostly exactly the same as the uk (it used to be a british colony well after cars were a thing). Although we do have plenty of roundabouts (but no minis at all), the road markings are not arrows but circles that look like roundabouts painted on each lane and many times on a sign, that indicate which exits each lane can take. Exceptions are either very old roundabouts or very small ones. Imo that's a much better system of assigning lanes to their corresponding exits and safer than assuming drivers know rules of thumb and won't get confused by seeing a straight arrow in the right lane. If you want examples of these road markings check out on street view for big roundabouts which definitely have them.
Yes, a right arrow with a circle showing the roundabout is likely a better sign. Then of course, is this present as an option in the road designers' manual in the first place?
@aveekbh the manual can always change. There's plenty of stupidly designed roads and junctions in Cyprus but at least they got the road markings correct.
You're perfectly right. Ahead arrows in right hand lanes are misleading and unnecessary since roundabouts already deploy circular blue signs with white left arrows on them to signify which way to pass
What's worse though, someone misunderstanding the straight arrow on the road or someone misunderstanding a turn right arrow on the road? Unfortunately we have to protect the idiots from themselves.
@@SiWeeMannHave another look at the video,on the island of the roundabout is a circular blue sign with a white left arrow showing that it is mandatory to go left onto the roundabout. All drivers must obey that sign and not turn right onto the roundabout, if foreign drivers do not understand that, some white paint on the road is unlikely to help to clarify the the correct action to take.
Making the roundabout confusing for everyone to hopefully prevent it being confusing for a small portion of people is a stupid idea in my opinion, I have nearly been sideswiped by people trying to go straight from a right lane on many occasions because the arrows suggest they can. They should be right or right/straight arrows depending on the roundabout to make it clear which lane you should be in. Either that or we need new roundabout specific arrows that show the arrow going around the circle and to the right for such a situation, this is one thing America does better than us I think as they do have arrows like that for roundabouts.
I started driving in the UK not long ago with an international license and this confused me a lot. Googling did not help much so this video helped me a ton! Thanks!
You know whats so weird is that i not only passed my cat b ages ago but also my cat d but i still enjoy these videos even though as a professional driver now (not to blow up my bum) i know the exact answers to these tricky questions/situations Richard is clearly entertaining 😊
Thank You Richard. I come across one in Birminham when im teaching and i thought the straight arrow was a mistake lol when turning right but this clears things up. Very useful video..
I was amused by the first roundabout in the video having Clacton as the far-right exit! I totally agree that arrows approaching roundabouts often seem to make little sense and cause confusion. While I understand that they want to avoid drivers going the wrong way around roundabouts, or going down slip-roads the wrong way, there's got to be more trust that 99.999% of drivers (even those used to driving on the right) won't do that. There's so much inconsistency in lane markings and signage which seems to cause more problems than it solves. So many of the dashcam video on YT seem to be at roundabouts where drivers seem to have different interpretations of what lane they should be in and end up having close shaves and tantrums. There's a junction near me when the multilane approach to the traffic-lighty roundabout initially has one sign telling you which lane you need for which exit; then a second sign a few seconds later than tells you something different. So you end up with drivers doing last second lane changes just as they get to the traffic lights.
Thank you, these are very informative and I'll be watching others as they come out. Bring back Public Information films. We could all do with them at some point!!!
As a foreign driver in the UK, I would never go the wrong way on a roundabout, but many times I used the right lane to go ahead due to the misleading sign.
UK roads are absolutely horrific. Don’t know if you’ve covered this topic yet, but merging two lanes into one (especially after a junction) is one of the best designs for creating traffic. The design of junction lanes in general make it difficult for people to anticipate which lane they need to be at in good time… unless they have driven on that road a couple times before.
A reason to use this is if there is a lot of traffic taking that route. For example, suppose it's the traffic going ahead at a traffic light on a road which is generally only one lane in each direction. At the traffic light, you could make the left lane, right lane or both lanes into ahead lanes. If you make them both go ahead, then because of the width of the road they will later have to merge. But, you can now potentially twice as many vehicles at a red traffic light. That may well be enough to prevent the queue at that light from tailing back all the way to the *previous* junction, gumming that up and interfering with it. I'd say the problem is not that it causes traffic, but that it causes conflict among people who see it not as a way to use space but as a way to overtake. They don't merge in turn when the lanes merge, but try to make it as far up the road as they can, and when they push in they force those behind to slam on the brakes and can cause accidents.
Edinburgh is awful for it. Seems like they consistently select just after the exit of the junction to merge lanes, even though that's the most challenging place to merge.
Why am I only learning this now? I've held a license for 10 years. I have noticed that it's always an ahead arrow, wondered why, but I just accepted it really and never looked into it. Good tidbit to know!
Brilliant video 😁 definitely very confusing to most new drivers especially when they want to go ahead using the right hand lane but there's only room for the left lane to exit onto the ahead road 😕
I think, perhaps, road designers should opt for a curvy ahead arrow instead. So it’s still an ahead arrow, but it’s curving to the right slightly as a hint to road users.
That was my thought. You could even have an arrow that looks a bit like a roundabout sign - goes left and then around to the right. Roundabout signs have a broken circle to make clear which way you should go around and the arrow in the road could use the same idea.
This is interesting thanks for the explanation, I've only been driving for 50 years and picked up some good tips which refreshes and improves my road craft.. 😊
my opinion - ahead arrows on the right lane can also mislead foreigners if they are unfamiliar with turning right using the right hand lane (ie their side of the road had switched), so it can get confusing to the point where they simply go ahead as the arrow supposedly shows. I think that similar to how there is a left arrow in the left lane, there should be a right arrow in the right lane. Similar to the arrows presented at junctions. this topic is a bit of a tricky one! Nonetheless I agree with you. thank you for the educational video
@@f-godz3342 I suppose it's the balance of risk and probability of it happening. The outcome of coming going the wrong way around a roundabout is potentially very bad, but the probability of it happening is very small. Whereas the probability of someone misinterpreting an ahead arrow it quite high, but the outcome is less bad. It'll be interesting to know how many cases there have been of people going around roundabouts (I'm really talking large multilane ones) the wrong way due to seeing a right-turn arrow?
There's a very frustrating roundabout near me, that my instructor said a pupil had failed at. There are three lanes into this roundabout, left, straight, right. The sign shows the 3rd exit is straight ahead, so going straight ahead you have to be in the middle lane, makes sense. first exit being a no through and not signposted on the roundabout, but because the 3rd exit (counting the none signposted road) is visually past 12oclock the examiner will tell you to turn right third exit. This specific pupil used the right hand lane to take what is signposted as a straight ahead, but isn't actually a straight ahead. What I've been told you need to do here is be in the middle lane and indicate right. No wonder people from elsewhere may get confused when this is how roundabouts are being signposted!
I watch a fair few driving fail videos, I don't see many clips of people going the wrong way around UK roundabouts, but for some reason I have seen quite a few from Australian clips. While you were explaining it, my initial thought was about preventing foreign drivers going the wrong way.
I always use the left lane to go left or straight and the right lane to go right (unless otherwise stated). As you showed in your diagram far too many two lane roundabouts suddenly turn into one lane once you go straight ahead.
Interesting video again Richard. I enjoy your videos even though I've been driving for for around 40 years. (I like identifying the locations too as I also live in the Colchester area) I regularly get cut off on roundabouts by people who seen to use the right hand lane even when exiting from a second exit at the twelve O clock position ( straight on) which is really annoying. I also see people who go most of the way round roundabouts in the left lane cutting off everyone trying to exit. Anything that helps awareness of lane discipline must be good .
Completely agree. Having some roundabouts with straight ahead and some with a right arrow is hugely inconsistent and likely to be a source of trouble in itself. The blue arrow is sufficient to show the direction around the roundabout. Some of these roundabouts presumably have signs on the approach showing which way you can leave the roundabout from which lane on the approach - and presumably these signs would then be showing different information to the road markings. If so, that's a source of confusion and distraction to drivers, which increases the risk of trouble.
You'll also notice that on the direction board, the island has a break to the right of your direction. This break indicates traffic flow direction around the island clockwise.
8:12 _"At a mini roundabout that right arrow is not likely going to cause someone to go the wrong way around the roundabout."_ You sure about that? I've seen the dashcam channels!
Man in the left arrow example you showed, ANY road markings AT ALL would be helpful. When driving in the UK, often times i encountered essentially blank pieces of asphalt and the only indication as to where/how many lanes there are was just a guess based on what other drivers are doing. Worn road marking are just such an unnecessary source of confusion in my opinion.
Seems like an arrow with a 45 degree angle pointing up and left would do fine. Clearly indicates you're to go off there, but strongly implies you're not expecting to make some mad hairpin turn.
recently passed my test in colchester your videos were a massive help not only by the tips you provide but as i had never driven there but have been watching for a year or so helped me massively in the local area
Totally agree. I see many people going straight on from the right lane because of this. They use the argument that some arrows do point to the right, so the straight on arrows must mean straight on. Some European countries use a hooked arrow to show the direction round the roundabout and the exit (its like a back to front question mark - because they go the other way round!)
The annoying thing with the two ‘ahead’ lanes is they often go into one lane on the other side of the roundabout. This usually encourages idiots to try to overtake you on the roundabout to go straight on.
I learned to drive in Reading, and there are quite a few roundabouts with a right arrow, e.g. Imperial Way turning right onto the A33 northbound (it's a very popular roundabout on driving test routes) has a straight and right arrow in lane 2 and a right-only arrow in lane 3. All learner drivers are taught to use lane 2 to turn right...
Where I live in Ivybridge. Classic sample. Right lane on the slip road coming off the motorway has an straight ARROW & TOWN written on the road and yet every day there will be a driver or 10 that will use the left lane ( no arrow) and cut you up on the roundabout to go ahead / Town. 3rd turning as well and if things haven't changed, 3rd turning is the outside lane. 5 turnings on the roundabout.
There is another document you need to consider: The Standards for Highways 'Design Manual for Roads and Bridges' (DMRB) CD 116 Geometric design of roundabouts : "3.27 Right pointing arrows on lane dedication signs or as markings on the road shall not be used on normal and compact roundabout approaches. NOTE 1 Preventing the use of right pointing arrows on lane dedication signs or as road markings is to avoid confusing drivers, particularly those from overseas, over which way to proceed around the roundabout. 3.27.1 Where a right-hand lane is dedicated to a specific destination, it should be associated with an ahead arrow on the approach." Interestingly, prior to 2007, the relevant document (TD 16/93) only made a remark about locations near ferry terminals : " 7.80 The dedication by direction arrows of an offside lane to a right turning movement should not be used at ferry ports with services to mainland Europe where large numbers of continental drivers are likely to be present. This is to avoid any confusion arising in visitors minds over which way to proceed around the roundabout." So this is a change that has been gradually occurring over the last decade or so as lane markings are updated. I've no idea how or why the DMRB is different to the Traffic Signs Manual. Or who writes each one and how they are supposed to be utilised together. It could explain why there is a degree of inconsistency.
Well done you! It’s noticeable, from the comments, that a lot of people that have been driving some time (like myself) are more confused that those that have learned recently. This explains it, thanks.
I did not know this, and recently, on an unfamiliar and busy roundabout, I upset another driver because of it. (I thought a straight ahead arrow meant you could go straight ahead, how silly of me?). Another commenter has made reference to this usage only being introduced around 2007. It’s made worse locally by some ‘left hand’ or (lane 1) lanes, becoming left turn only at the roundabout! It does seem nonsensical that UK road markings should be designed around a (very?) small number of users. Thanks for the heads up.
@@JamsODonnell100 Yeah, I only came across it recently when some junctions near me were redone and I ended up in the wrong lane, thinking that I could go straight ahead because of straight ahead arrow. (I'm as silly as you). I went searching for why it was like that and came across those documents. I feel like a petition is warranted to get them to change it back.
Straight ahead at a roundabout can be done from either the left or right lane depending on the road layout. If there are two lanes on approach and the straight ahead exit is also two lanes, you can use either lane.
It's a minor nitpick but I think it's significant enough that it should be amended. Another nitpick I have with the UK's signage is that at a large junction where right-turning traffic is controlled by a separate traffic signal, the signal will only have a right arrow on its green aspect, with red and amber being solid circles. In other countries the red and amber aspects also have an arrow shape to indicate the red light is intended only for turning traffic. The problem with not having red and amber aspects is that it can cause confusion with the straight-ahead signal, especially at night for those unfamiliar with the junction. I've seen a couple of cases where people have come to a sudden stop as they see a red light, only to realise a few seconds later that it's the right-turn light and that their light is green. The more dangerous opposite scenario is less likely but still possible. Having arrows on all of the aspects gets rid of the ambiguity.
I think this may be a regional thing, with local councils deciding on how they'll mark things. I teach in Telford, where we have almost as many roundabouts as Milton Keynes, and where arrows are marked it is often a right (or combination right/ahead) arrow in the right hand lane, with ahead arrows only being used in situations where the right lane can also be used to go ahead.
The Netherlands does it best. An arrow off a roundabout diagram. Hard to describe but you can see if you look at Google maps satellite at a roundabout in the Netherlands
This is a perfect opportunity for me to ask a roundabout related question to a qualified driving instructor... Imagine you're on an A road, and you approach a roundabout. The roundabout has 5 exits, including the road you're approaching from. As you approach, the road widens to form enough space for 2 lanes of traffic to form. (although these lanes are not marked on the road with dividing white lines) From your perspective as you approach, exit 1 is around about 45 degrees around the roundabout, definitely a left turn. So left hand "lane" (or left side of the carriage way) is suitable. Exit 2 is 120 degrees around, and presumably still a left turn and left lane is suitable. Exit 3 however, is past the 180 point, i.e. its not technically "straight ahead". However, on this particular roundabout, there is always a mix of drivers who go in both lanes, in an attempt to get to the 3rd exit. I personally get in the right hand lane, so do the majority of people, however there is always one or two who blast down the left, and pass cars on the left whilst on the roundabout, forcing themselves off at exit 3. What's your take on this? Is exit 3 a right hand turn, should drivers approach in the right hand lane? (there are no road markings or road signs to indicate which lane to use)
You follow the roundabout sign for left, straight ahead and right, not the actual position of the roads. Edit: Ah, I see you say there are no road signs. I find it unlikely a five exit roundabout wouldn't have a roundabout sign, but I don't have an answer for you in the circumstance you describe. (also not a driving instructor, so you may need to wait and see if one responds)
Hi Conquer Driving, as soon as I saw your title caption with that illustration it was obvious why this is done this way!. They could have put a right turn arrow on the road but some drivers might get confused and actually turn right instead of going round the roundabout. The same reason applies to why the earlier road sign show a diagram of the junction with a clear gap to the immediate right. The extent of this problem depends on the actual layout of the roundabout, some of the smaller ones have direct access with the crown of the joining road facing the centre of the small island, here it is almost as easy to go right too soon!, those that have more space can use some of it to form a small island at the threshold to send traffic to the left as they join, here the arrow marking is sometimes one that directs traffic straight on with a smaller side arrow to the right, usually one where there is another right turn lane as soon as traffic clears the next exit threshold. All of this should be standardised but sadly there is no settled consistent established design protocol and most road works are designed and carried out by separate local authorities apparently totally unable to communicate with each other!. One minor point comes to mind, that is that I do see some drivers so confused about where they want to go and how to get there that none of the signs effectively mean anything!, some at least because their entire driving method relies on prescription whereby they have to know what to do before they get there, they have not learned to just be as observant as the conditions dictate and act accordingly by reflex from experience. Cheers, Richard.
There's a fun one near me where there are two lanes approaching a normal 4-exit roundabout. According to the signs, you can use the left lane to turn left, go straight, or turn right. It is painted on the road with arrows only pointing left and straight on. However, in the right lane it is marked on the road with a straight ahead only arrow, which continues into a dual-lane road. I sometimes wonder how many people go straight on in that one and go into the side of someone (correctly) turning right in the left lane.
In the 70s I was given a ride home on a snowy night by a foreign colleague in a small sports car. Approaching a roundabout, no road markings visible due to snow, he circumnavigated it anti-clockwise. There was no other traffic around at the time, because it was a snowy night. What concerned me more was that the foreign driver had never driven on snow before and changed down to a low gear 'to get better traction', which is the exact opposite of what he needed to do. We were lucky we didn't bounce off the central hub of the roundabout.
Great vid. To be pedantic, the roundabout consists of a circulatory carrdigeway what goes around an island. The roundabout isn't the island itself, it is the combination of the road and the island.
I totally agree with you I been ,a couch driver of 25 years and it would make much Easier with right hand turns on Roundabouts Stops idiots from Cutting you up
Good video, but at 8:59 I would have self cancelled the indicator as I believe the auto cancel would be too late and confusing if anyone had been waiting to pull out where you were exiting.
Sorry, the road traffic sign book is completely wrong! Surely the blue circle with the left arrows which is on approach to pretty much every ‘normal (non Mini) roundabouts tell people (foreigners or not) that they ‘must enter the roundabouts to the left! I have a roundabout near me where you literally can only turn left (9 o’clock) or right (3 o’clock) there is no ahead , yet the road marking say both lanes are for ahead! 🤷♂️🤦♂️. Make it make sense!
I’m VERY impressed with your clarity and personal animation in delivery of well-paced, fully fluent, unhesitant and never-distracted presentation. As a fellow ADI, thank you. Regarding this video topic: aren’t traffic signs (not arrow markings) the only legally binding feature? I know DVSA examiners would nonetheless expect a test candidate to follow lane arrows even if no ORU nearby. And is not all design guidance based on monitored accident statistics? So “ahead arrow confusion” is in fact less risky than painting a right-arrow?
I don't recall ever seeing a roundabout like this - I'm going to have to look more carefully! I know the main roundabouts I use do use right arrows, or if they use straight on arrows have the right number of lanes on the exit so you can go ahead from the right lane.
@ConquerDriving I guess so, but in the same way as how a left arrow is positioned to let you know you go left on the roundabout, the straight arrow tells you to keep following the road (roundabout in this instance) and if you keep doing it you'll reach the 3rd exit.. idk if you get what I mean though
@@Endermanv-ot2if We've got one near where I live, but it has two exits pretty much right on top of each other, so the spiral kinda just sputters out there as there was no way to adequately section off that traffic. It's also very common for a car exiting the penultimate exit to indicate left, then take the second exit, as it's the main thoroughfare and is right beside the first exit. Not a fun roundabout, all told.
Hmm definitely the government needs to sort this out as it does seem it confuses even the most advanced drivers, so I believe it should be changed to a right arrow, and seeing people with a cars with foreign plates have definitely confused them thinking they can go straight ahead
Thanks for an excellent video. I have noticed this anomaly. My bugbear is mini roundabouts. Unless there has been a change, I think it is still illegal to drive over the while blob in the middle, yet on many mini roundabouts this is impossible even in a car, let alone a larger vehicle. And on a motorcycle, in the wet, grip is seriously reduced when cornering on the white stuff.
You will find that very little in the Highway Code is actually supported by law. Crossing the white blob may be considered reckless driving, which is the actual law you're breaking. It is highly unlikely to be dangerous driving, which is the other legal aspect to driving. Those are the only two things which can make certain driving behaviour illegal. Everything else is just mitigating bad practice.
The problem is not the absence of the right turn arrow and the risk or going the wrong way around the island. The problem is that you have 2 lanes marked for ahead and many roundabouts do not have 2 exit lanes for ahead thus creating a problem with 2 in to 1 lane changes. There are several close to me where the road markings are directly contradicted by the direction signs and lane use signs.
Now I know. When I had a meeting about this issue with the local council they did not mention the manual, I thought it was his reason for not putting a right arrow on approach. How does one know if they can use the right lane for straight on? I have experienced the situation at 7:16
There are many roundabouts with 2 lanes on approach that should have right only marks in lane 2, but have none at all, with all the exits being one lane only. Unfamiliar people can end up cutting in front from lane 2 when they are in the wrong one then. Then again, those with 2 exit lanes often have really short merger lanes after the exit. And there are plenty with faded/worn out paintwork that can be awkward for those that are not familiar with it.
Arrows on approach to a roundabout signal a deviation from the standard "ahead left" - if there are two lanes with two ahead arrows, then in my experience the ahead lane has two lanes
What do you teach where 2 lanes become 3 and it's not clear which lane widens? Specifically where a crossing separates the change (eg. at 6:48). No issue for traffic turning left or right, but for cars going ahead, there could be conflict from both lanes 1 & 2 to get to the new middle lane.
Hi Richard, how are you? Thanks a million for all your videos especially those playlists! They are brilliant! I am learning to drive here in Ireland and I am finding your videos extremely useful! Although you have covered many driving topics, one of the things I find difficult to judge while driving is how and when to make a precise stop exactly in the right place/position at a stop/yield/giveaway line at a junction/signal/roundabout so that I/my car/my car's bonnet is not too far behind or not to far ahead of the line. Could you please make a video explaining the same and give some pointers? Many thanks in advance. :)
at 7:00 I see there's a lane to your left (left or ahead) at 7:02 I would assume the lane to your left (didn't take left, now approaching ahead) will finish there, but it continues to the 3rd exit, and you have to take the 2nd lane on the 3rd exit, while taking the exit. That's confusing as hell.
I remember when the roundabout opposite the police station in Colchester had 4 lanes approaching from Southway. Apparently it was some sort of mistake and the 3rd lane from the left was supposed to be ignored. I'd been told that if any learner on their test attempted to use it, the examiner would automatically fail them. It was corrected quite a few years ago, though you might still remember it and tell me if this was just an old Colchester myth.
They could make a "squiggle arrow". Not just a plain right arrow, but put a small imaginary circle where the arrow would turn, but make it go around that circle. Forward -arround-right-arrow
In Norway we rely less on painted road marking, and it's more common to provide lane info on signs, or both, rarely only markings on the road. During winter, if the markings are covered by ice or snow, all the info is lost, unless there are signs too. Yes, the signs can be covered too, but if they are, the road is probably covered too.
On the A299 in Kent we had a round-a-bout with a left turn arrow in the right lane, despite being able to go straight ahead from the left lane! They have now removed the arrows, although the signage still suggest the right lane is fine to use to go left... Also have a proliferation of ahead arrows on round-a-bouts with a right turn.
@@ConquerDriving It did appear after a resurfacing, so I agree, although the large sign board still suggest using the right lane to go to a destination (Ramsgate) that would require turning left, that sign has been there for years.
That reminds me of the Kearsley Interchange in Greater Manchester. 🤣🤣🤣 For real, it's the first time I hear you speaking American English "truck" rather than "lorry". "Sidewalk" is another American word.
I always thought that an arrow pointing ahead in the 2nd lane means the forward exit has two lanes. A turn right arrow in the RH lane at the roundabout means only turn right as straight ahead has only one exit lane.
There's a roundabout near me where road markings and signs cause confusion. Left lane for 1st 2 exits, right lane for 3rd (4th is used as a snack van park up) and 5th. There's a large sign saying left lane for Livingston but there's no roundabout graphic showing what they mean. The problem is the 2nd exit takes a route to Livingston but almost everyone uses the 3rd exit to go onto the motorway and then to Livingston. Now people arrive and see the left lane for livy but all the right lane traffic that wants the motorway and livy. There are constant clashes and horns every single time I'm there. I've learned to leave space for folk using the wrong lane.
Those road arrow markings have puzzled me for a long time: I had always assumed it was about a quirk of (topology/topography?). However, there is a roundabout around my way where the advance warning sign appears to conflict with the road markings,
The straight arrows on the right lane, i feel that more and more drivers are not using the right indicator when turning right as they may feel the marking exempts them from doing so.
I feel like a lot of the roundabouts in my area do have the right arrow in the right lane. In fact, looking at google maps, most of the roundabouts near my house have the right turn arrow (and this is across two counties as I'm on a border). So maybe some counties favour the use of the right arrow instead? How much can road planners go against what is in the manual? I assume the use of appropriate road markings are situational and road planners can use their own discretion?
Great video. I also find cars turning right at a roundabout will not indicate right but will indicate left after the second exit in front of me waiting. So frustrating.
We noticed a local roundabout got updated from having a right arrow to an ahead arrow. Firstly we had never noticed people going round the roundabout the wrong way prior to the change, however what we noticed after the change was a lot of cars in the right hand lane assuming they can go ahead, which along with people in the left hand who also had an ahead arrow meant lots of near misses coming off the roundabout where people in the right lane "cut off" those in the left lane when both exit the roundabout - it is a very dangerous set up.
I've been driving for 40 years and I just learned something new. Thanks for this!
Me too, 50 years.
Lol same!😂
Same here😊
I do like these types of videos Richard, id say they're 85% educational (and they are educational) and 15% you airing your grievances with British roads 😂
15% is just finding contradictions in the Highway Code because of the crappy wording.
Too many idiot drivers about that turn right from a left-hand lane - they need all the education they can get, probably don't see these vids though sadly.
Totally agree with you roundabouts in this country these days are getting more complicated and hardly anybody seems to know how to use them
I passed my test about a year ago now and still watch your vids to improve my driving
It's my turn to share this today-I passed my driving test! A huge thanks for all the excellent videos you’ve created Richard. I truly believe your videos have helped save countless lives by reaching to so many viewers that you deserved. Definitely gonna keep watching and learning to be a safer and confident driver on road!
Ayyy Congratulations!!
Congrats, mate!!
its one of the best feelings! passed about a year ago and still watch these videos!
@Vigo1085 Congratulations, well done.
Thanks a lot guys :)
Brilliant. As a foreigner driving for a living in this country I find these type of videos super helpful in understanding the logic behind the design of various types of junctions in the UK. Thanks for that, liked and subbed.
Using the safety argument, I believe that an ahead arrow in the right lane can be downright dangerous, because it encourages people, well, to go ahead! This can bring traffic into conflict where the entrance has 2 lanes and the ahead exit has only 1 lane. I've been in this exact situation myself at a new roundabout. Come on road designers, we ALL know that we go clockwise around a roundabout, no-one who has passed their test should be in any doubt about that.
Quite - and if there is an issue, put a small blue 'go left' arrow on the roundabout itself, ahead of the approaching traffic.
Trouble is, you don't necessarily have people driving here who have passed a UK driving test. Many countries can transfer their license and many more allow a new entrant to drive for a year prior to getting their UK license.
I passed my license test yesterday. Am officially licensed. Ohh this channel played a big part in my development. I live in Namibia and ur videos were good everything. Thank you. May God bless you Mr Teacher
Well done brother
Congrats, well done my country is also Namibia. Driving on our roads is so straightforward to the British roads. 😊
For my students I describe this as a continuation arrow. So in right lane you would just continue ahead in that lane to the right. Near me there are also forward arrows that lead left. Therefore if you have a lane to follow with a forward arrow you should just follow the lane around and not cross the dashed line unless absolutely necessary
I've been driving for 40+ years and this video is really interesting, about something I've noticed, but now 'ignore', though the road markings do occasionally make me question my satnav information. So, all in all, I completely agree with your points made... and implied! Useful.
Hi Richard. I’m a driving instructor in Hull and these lane markings are a nightmare to explain to pupils. 100% agree with everything you said. Thank you for all your videos 🙂
I remember years ago the local council resurfacing a roundabout near us and they replaced the Right turn arrow with an Ahead arrow.
This then caused confusion with other road users attempting to go ahead in the right hand lane which caused the exact issue you mentioned @7:14
The chair of our local driving instructors association contacted the council who explained that it’s in case someone turns right directly onto the roundabout. The chairman’s reaction was “ direct “ he said to the council employee “ We are in Manchester pal. If someone has come over from Hull or Dover, they’d have messed a roundabout up well before they get to our area “ 🤣
I see both sides of the coin to be fair and I agree with everything you said in this video.
Spot on when he said Dover
so they go from 1 near miss in 5 years to 5 a day with the new design
Thanks for this video Richard. I used to watch your and a few other similar channels when first learning to drive several years ago. I'm now a HGV driver and navigating new roundabouts in new places while everyone makes it their life's mission to get ahead of you is quite challenging, and this particular topic is something I've been scratching my head over.
Thank you Richard, I am one of those foreign drivers who has found the roundabouts so confusing and quite scary. Although I am sure I wouldn't turn right in the wrong direction😂. I have gone straight in the right lane instead of turning right and got the hooting of my life so you are very "right" in your analogy
I always go by the rule of turning left or going straight take the left hand lane and if turn right take the right.
The exception to this is if I know straight ahead is two lanes then I may take the right lane if there is less traffic queued there.
But always assume that the car to the left or right of you on a roundabout is in the wrong lane and likely to cut in front of you.
A lot of roundabouts are left lane left only. It's very common
I passed today, 4th attempt. Thank you so much for your videos they helped so much ❤
Brilliant👏🏻
Hi Richard! I rarely leave comments on social media, but i wanted to say thank uou for your tremendous work! I know you are posting once in few weeks, i wish you could do more. I believe it might be boring already and not that exciting as when you started the channel. But you helped so many people! I hope you will reach 1mil soon! I have a test on 9th and i hope i will pass 😂 thankd again for your knowledge!
I'm from Cyprus where traffic rules are mostly exactly the same as the uk (it used to be a british colony well after cars were a thing). Although we do have plenty of roundabouts (but no minis at all), the road markings are not arrows but circles that look like roundabouts painted on each lane and many times on a sign, that indicate which exits each lane can take. Exceptions are either very old roundabouts or very small ones. Imo that's a much better system of assigning lanes to their corresponding exits and safer than assuming drivers know rules of thumb and won't get confused by seeing a straight arrow in the right lane.
If you want examples of these road markings check out on street view for big roundabouts which definitely have them.
Yes, a right arrow with a circle showing the roundabout is likely a better sign.
Then of course, is this present as an option in the road designers' manual in the first place?
@aveekbh the manual can always change. There's plenty of stupidly designed roads and junctions in Cyprus but at least they got the road markings correct.
You're perfectly right. Ahead arrows in right hand lanes are misleading and unnecessary since roundabouts already deploy circular blue signs with white left arrows on them to signify which way to pass
That's only for mini-roundabouts - the standard roundabout sign is a triangle warning sign.
What's worse though, someone misunderstanding the straight arrow on the road or someone misunderstanding a turn right arrow on the road? Unfortunately we have to protect the idiots from themselves.
@@SiWeeMannHave another look at the video,on the island of the roundabout is a circular blue sign with a white left arrow showing that it is mandatory to go left onto the roundabout. All drivers must obey that sign and not turn right onto the roundabout, if foreign drivers do not understand that, some white paint on the road is unlikely to help to clarify the the correct action to take.
@nicklewis-q3p Sorry, I misread it and assumed the OP was talking about a mini-roundabout sign. My mistake.
Passed my test this week, thank you so much for all the tips, first try with one minor
Making the roundabout confusing for everyone to hopefully prevent it being confusing for a small portion of people is a stupid idea in my opinion, I have nearly been sideswiped by people trying to go straight from a right lane on many occasions because the arrows suggest they can. They should be right or right/straight arrows depending on the roundabout to make it clear which lane you should be in. Either that or we need new roundabout specific arrows that show the arrow going around the circle and to the right for such a situation, this is one thing America does better than us I think as they do have arrows like that for roundabouts.
I started driving in the UK not long ago with an international license and this confused me a lot. Googling did not help much so this video helped me a ton! Thanks!
Can you still get those? What country are you from?
I passed today thank you for the free content which is a complete god send
This video has explained perfectly the question I had for such a long time. God bless you Richard.
You know whats so weird is that i not only passed my cat b ages ago but also my cat d but i still enjoy these videos even though as a professional driver now (not to blow up my bum) i know the exact answers to these tricky questions/situations
Richard is clearly entertaining 😊
Thank You Richard. I come across one in Birminham when im teaching and i thought the straight arrow was a mistake lol when turning right but this clears things up. Very useful video..
I was amused by the first roundabout in the video having Clacton as the far-right exit!
I totally agree that arrows approaching roundabouts often seem to make little sense and cause confusion. While I understand that they want to avoid drivers going the wrong way around roundabouts, or going down slip-roads the wrong way, there's got to be more trust that 99.999% of drivers (even those used to driving on the right) won't do that. There's so much inconsistency in lane markings and signage which seems to cause more problems than it solves.
So many of the dashcam video on YT seem to be at roundabouts where drivers seem to have different interpretations of what lane they should be in and end up having close shaves and tantrums.
There's a junction near me when the multilane approach to the traffic-lighty roundabout initially has one sign telling you which lane you need for which exit; then a second sign a few seconds later than tells you something different. So you end up with drivers doing last second lane changes just as they get to the traffic lights.
Passed my exam today with just 3 minor faults, thanks bro.
Thank you, these are very informative and I'll be watching others as they come out. Bring back Public Information films. We could all do with them at some point!!!
Thank you for this. My students are always asking me about those arrows.
Thanks for explaining that so clearly. It has been an unexplained bugbear of mine for years.
As a foreign driver in the UK, I would never go the wrong way on a roundabout, but many times I used the right lane to go ahead due to the misleading sign.
UK roads are absolutely horrific. Don’t know if you’ve covered this topic yet, but merging two lanes into one (especially after a junction) is one of the best designs for creating traffic.
The design of junction lanes in general make it difficult for people to anticipate which lane they need to be at in good time… unless they have driven on that road a couple times before.
A reason to use this is if there is a lot of traffic taking that route. For example, suppose it's the traffic going ahead at a traffic light on a road which is generally only one lane in each direction. At the traffic light, you could make the left lane, right lane or both lanes into ahead lanes. If you make them both go ahead, then because of the width of the road they will later have to merge. But, you can now potentially twice as many vehicles at a red traffic light. That may well be enough to prevent the queue at that light from tailing back all the way to the *previous* junction, gumming that up and interfering with it.
I'd say the problem is not that it causes traffic, but that it causes conflict among people who see it not as a way to use space but as a way to overtake. They don't merge in turn when the lanes merge, but try to make it as far up the road as they can, and when they push in they force those behind to slam on the brakes and can cause accidents.
Edinburgh is awful for it. Seems like they consistently select just after the exit of the junction to merge lanes, even though that's the most challenging place to merge.
🇬🇧 understandable. We definitely don't want people going the wrong way around the roundabout
Why am I only learning this now? I've held a license for 10 years. I have noticed that it's always an ahead arrow, wondered why, but I just accepted it really and never looked into it. Good tidbit to know!
Brilliant video 😁 definitely very confusing to most new drivers especially when they want to go ahead using the right hand lane but there's only room for the left lane to exit onto the ahead road 😕
I think, perhaps, road designers should opt for a curvy ahead arrow instead.
So it’s still an ahead arrow, but it’s curving to the right slightly as a hint to road users.
❤❤❤. Gkdbzmz is ❤sjoz😊vzzm mxm🥍🥍🥍🥍🥍🥍🥍🥍🥍🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪🇪Dhani in gjgjuc6o vkkgggnm=ncbhhjgjvncytmc in
I think that's a good idea.
They have exactly that in Canada and USA
That was my thought. You could even have an arrow that looks a bit like a roundabout sign - goes left and then around to the right. Roundabout signs have a broken circle to make clear which way you should go around and the arrow in the road could use the same idea.
This is interesting thanks for the explanation, I've only been driving for 50 years and picked up some good tips which refreshes and improves my road craft.. 😊
my opinion - ahead arrows on the right lane can also mislead foreigners if they are unfamiliar with turning right using the right hand lane (ie their side of the road had switched), so it can get confusing to the point where they simply go ahead as the arrow supposedly shows. I think that similar to how there is a left arrow in the left lane, there should be a right arrow in the right lane. Similar to the arrows presented at junctions. this topic is a bit of a tricky one! Nonetheless I agree with you. thank you for the educational video
What's worse, someone misunderstanding the straight arrow on the road or someone misunderstanding a turn right arrow on the road? Rhetorical.
@@f-godz3342 I suppose it's the balance of risk and probability of it happening. The outcome of coming going the wrong way around a roundabout is potentially very bad, but the probability of it happening is very small. Whereas the probability of someone misinterpreting an ahead arrow it quite high, but the outcome is less bad.
It'll be interesting to know how many cases there have been of people going around roundabouts (I'm really talking large multilane ones) the wrong way due to seeing a right-turn arrow?
A right lane is right only turn would be clearer
There's a very frustrating roundabout near me, that my instructor said a pupil had failed at. There are three lanes into this roundabout, left, straight, right. The sign shows the 3rd exit is straight ahead, so going straight ahead you have to be in the middle lane, makes sense. first exit being a no through and not signposted on the roundabout, but because the 3rd exit (counting the none signposted road) is visually past 12oclock the examiner will tell you to turn right third exit. This specific pupil used the right hand lane to take what is signposted as a straight ahead, but isn't actually a straight ahead. What I've been told you need to do here is be in the middle lane and indicate right. No wonder people from elsewhere may get confused when this is how roundabouts are being signposted!
I watch a fair few driving fail videos, I don't see many clips of people going the wrong way around UK roundabouts, but for some reason I have seen quite a few from Australian clips. While you were explaining it, my initial thought was about preventing foreign drivers going the wrong way.
I always use the left lane to go left or straight and the right lane to go right (unless otherwise stated). As you showed in your diagram far too many two lane roundabouts suddenly turn into one lane once you go straight ahead.
Interesting video again Richard. I enjoy your videos even though I've been driving for for around 40 years. (I like identifying the locations too as I also live in the Colchester area) I regularly get cut off on roundabouts by people who seen to use the right hand lane even when exiting from a second exit at the twelve O clock position ( straight on) which is really annoying. I also see people who go most of the way round roundabouts in the left lane cutting off everyone trying to exit. Anything that helps awareness of lane discipline must be good .
Completely agree. Having some roundabouts with straight ahead and some with a right arrow is hugely inconsistent and likely to be a source of trouble in itself. The blue arrow is sufficient to show the direction around the roundabout. Some of these roundabouts presumably have signs on the approach showing which way you can leave the roundabout from which lane on the approach - and presumably these signs would then be showing different information to the road markings. If so, that's a source of confusion and distraction to drivers, which increases the risk of trouble.
Appreciate Ur vids man, I passed first try without paying for instructor and only got 5 minors 🙌🏾💯
You'll also notice that on the direction board, the island has a break to the right of your direction. This break indicates traffic flow direction around the island clockwise.
8:12 _"At a mini roundabout that right arrow is not likely going to cause someone to go the wrong way around the roundabout."_
You sure about that? I've seen the dashcam channels!
Man in the left arrow example you showed, ANY road markings AT ALL would be helpful. When driving in the UK, often times i encountered essentially blank pieces of asphalt and the only indication as to where/how many lanes there are was just a guess based on what other drivers are doing. Worn road marking are just such an unnecessary source of confusion in my opinion.
Seems like an arrow with a 45 degree angle pointing up and left would do fine. Clearly indicates you're to go off there, but strongly implies you're not expecting to make some mad hairpin turn.
recently passed my test in colchester your videos were a massive help not only by the tips you provide but as i had never driven there but have been watching for a year or so helped me massively in the local area
That's great to hear! Thank you for watching and congratulations on passing!
Thank you. It makes very good sense particularly if the roundabout is a big one or not round.
Great instruction...even though I've been driving for many years!
I'm not british so this doesnt matter to me but I wanted to tell you that your expression in the thumbnail is fantastic.
Totally agree. I see many people going straight on from the right lane because of this. They use the argument that some arrows do point to the right, so the straight on arrows must mean straight on. Some European countries use a hooked arrow to show the direction round the roundabout and the exit (its like a back to front question mark - because they go the other way round!)
The annoying thing with the two ‘ahead’ lanes is they often go into one lane on the other side of the roundabout. This usually encourages idiots to try to overtake you on the roundabout to go straight on.
I learned to drive in Reading, and there are quite a few roundabouts with a right arrow, e.g. Imperial Way turning right onto the A33 northbound (it's a very popular roundabout on driving test routes) has a straight and right arrow in lane 2 and a right-only arrow in lane 3. All learner drivers are taught to use lane 2 to turn right...
Where I live in Ivybridge. Classic sample. Right lane on the slip road coming off the motorway has an straight ARROW & TOWN written on the road and yet every day there will be a driver or 10 that will use the left lane ( no arrow) and cut you up on the roundabout to go ahead / Town. 3rd turning as well and if things haven't changed, 3rd turning is the outside lane. 5 turnings on the roundabout.
I passed my test three years ago and a lot of that was down to you! Thank you for making these 🫶🏾
There is another document you need to consider: The Standards for Highways 'Design Manual for Roads and Bridges' (DMRB) CD 116 Geometric design of roundabouts :
"3.27 Right pointing arrows on lane dedication signs or as markings on the road shall not be used on normal and compact roundabout approaches.
NOTE 1 Preventing the use of right pointing arrows on lane dedication signs or as road markings is to avoid confusing drivers, particularly those from overseas, over which way to proceed around the roundabout.
3.27.1 Where a right-hand lane is dedicated to a specific destination, it should be associated with an ahead arrow on the approach."
Interestingly, prior to 2007, the relevant document (TD 16/93) only made a remark about locations near ferry terminals :
" 7.80 The dedication by direction arrows of an offside lane to a right turning movement should not be used at ferry ports with services to mainland Europe where large numbers of continental drivers are likely to be present. This is to avoid any confusion arising in visitors minds over which way to proceed around the roundabout."
So this is a change that has been gradually occurring over the last decade or so as lane markings are updated.
I've no idea how or why the DMRB is different to the Traffic Signs Manual. Or who writes each one and how they are supposed to be utilised together. It could explain why there is a degree of inconsistency.
Well done you! It’s noticeable, from the comments, that a lot of people that have been driving some time (like myself) are more confused that those that have learned recently. This explains it, thanks.
I did not know this, and recently, on an unfamiliar and busy roundabout, I upset another driver because of it. (I thought a straight ahead arrow meant you could go straight ahead, how silly of me?). Another commenter has made reference to this usage only being introduced around 2007.
It’s made worse locally by some ‘left hand’ or (lane 1) lanes, becoming left turn only at the roundabout! It does seem nonsensical that UK road markings should be designed around a (very?) small number of users. Thanks for the heads up.
@@JamsODonnell100 Yeah, I only came across it recently when some junctions near me were redone and I ended up in the wrong lane, thinking that I could go straight ahead because of straight ahead arrow. (I'm as silly as you). I went searching for why it was like that and came across those documents. I feel like a petition is warranted to get them to change it back.
Straight ahead at a roundabout can be done from either the left or right lane depending on the road layout.
If there are two lanes on approach and the straight ahead exit is also two lanes, you can use either lane.
It's a minor nitpick but I think it's significant enough that it should be amended. Another nitpick I have with the UK's signage is that at a large junction where right-turning traffic is controlled by a separate traffic signal, the signal will only have a right arrow on its green aspect, with red and amber being solid circles. In other countries the red and amber aspects also have an arrow shape to indicate the red light is intended only for turning traffic.
The problem with not having red and amber aspects is that it can cause confusion with the straight-ahead signal, especially at night for those unfamiliar with the junction. I've seen a couple of cases where people have come to a sudden stop as they see a red light, only to realise a few seconds later that it's the right-turn light and that their light is green. The more dangerous opposite scenario is less likely but still possible. Having arrows on all of the aspects gets rid of the ambiguity.
I think this may be a regional thing, with local councils deciding on how they'll mark things. I teach in Telford, where we have almost as many roundabouts as Milton Keynes, and where arrows are marked it is often a right (or combination right/ahead) arrow in the right hand lane, with ahead arrows only being used in situations where the right lane can also be used to go ahead.
Thanks Richard I really like how you explain 😊
The Netherlands does it best. An arrow off a roundabout diagram. Hard to describe but you can see if you look at Google maps satellite at a roundabout in the Netherlands
this vidio is so helpful. i just bought my first car with international license.. my area is full of round about which gives me headache omg
This is a perfect opportunity for me to ask a roundabout related question to a qualified driving instructor...
Imagine you're on an A road, and you approach a roundabout. The roundabout has 5 exits, including the road you're approaching from.
As you approach, the road widens to form enough space for 2 lanes of traffic to form. (although these lanes are not marked on the road with dividing white lines)
From your perspective as you approach, exit 1 is around about 45 degrees around the roundabout, definitely a left turn. So left hand "lane" (or left side of the carriage way) is suitable.
Exit 2 is 120 degrees around, and presumably still a left turn and left lane is suitable.
Exit 3 however, is past the 180 point, i.e. its not technically "straight ahead". However, on this particular roundabout, there is always a mix of drivers who go in both lanes, in an attempt to get to the 3rd exit.
I personally get in the right hand lane, so do the majority of people, however there is always one or two who blast down the left, and pass cars on the left whilst on the roundabout, forcing themselves off at exit 3.
What's your take on this? Is exit 3 a right hand turn, should drivers approach in the right hand lane?
(there are no road markings or road signs to indicate which lane to use)
You follow the roundabout sign for left, straight ahead and right, not the actual position of the roads.
Edit: Ah, I see you say there are no road signs. I find it unlikely a five exit roundabout wouldn't have a roundabout sign, but I don't have an answer for you in the circumstance you describe. (also not a driving instructor, so you may need to wait and see if one responds)
I'd been starting to wonder the exact same thing, with the exact roundabouts you went round!
Hi Conquer Driving, as soon as I saw your title caption with that illustration it was obvious why this is done this way!. They could have put a right turn arrow on the road but some drivers might get confused and actually turn right instead of going round the roundabout. The same reason applies to why the earlier road sign show a diagram of the junction with a clear gap to the immediate right. The extent of this problem depends on the actual layout of the roundabout, some of the smaller ones have direct access with the crown of the joining road facing the centre of the small island, here it is almost as easy to go right too soon!, those that have more space can use some of it to form a small island at the threshold to send traffic to the left as they join, here the arrow marking is sometimes one that directs traffic straight on with a smaller side arrow to the right, usually one where there is another right turn lane as soon as traffic clears the next exit threshold.
All of this should be standardised but sadly there is no settled consistent established design protocol and most road works are designed and carried out by separate local authorities apparently totally unable to communicate with each other!.
One minor point comes to mind, that is that I do see some drivers so confused about where they want to go and how to get there that none of the signs effectively mean anything!, some at least because their entire driving method relies on prescription whereby they have to know what to do before they get there, they have not learned to just be as observant as the conditions dictate and act accordingly by reflex from experience.
Cheers, Richard.
There's a fun one near me where there are two lanes approaching a normal 4-exit roundabout. According to the signs, you can use the left lane to turn left, go straight, or turn right. It is painted on the road with arrows only pointing left and straight on. However, in the right lane it is marked on the road with a straight ahead only arrow, which continues into a dual-lane road. I sometimes wonder how many people go straight on in that one and go into the side of someone (correctly) turning right in the left lane.
If there are two lanes on approach, the left lane shouldn't allow turning right - seems like the sign is outdated.
In the 70s I was given a ride home on a snowy night by a foreign colleague in a small sports car. Approaching a roundabout, no road markings visible due to snow, he circumnavigated it anti-clockwise. There was no other traffic around at the time, because it was a snowy night.
What concerned me more was that the foreign driver had never driven on snow before and changed down to a low gear 'to get better traction', which is the exact opposite of what he needed to do. We were lucky we didn't bounce off the central hub of the roundabout.
Great vid. To be pedantic, the roundabout consists of a circulatory carrdigeway what goes around an island. The roundabout isn't the island itself, it is the combination of the road and the island.
I totally agree with you I been ,a couch driver of 25 years and it would make much Easier with right hand turns on Roundabouts Stops idiots from Cutting you up
Good video, but at 8:59 I would have self cancelled the indicator as I believe the auto cancel would be too late and confusing if anyone had been waiting to pull out where you were exiting.
Sorry, the road traffic sign book is completely wrong! Surely the blue circle with the left arrows which is on approach to pretty much every ‘normal (non Mini) roundabouts tell people (foreigners or not) that they ‘must enter the roundabouts to the left! I have a roundabout near me where you literally can only turn left (9 o’clock) or right (3 o’clock) there is no ahead , yet the road marking say both lanes are for ahead! 🤷♂️🤦♂️. Make it make sense!
I’m VERY impressed with your clarity and personal animation in delivery of well-paced, fully fluent, unhesitant and never-distracted presentation. As a fellow ADI, thank you.
Regarding this video topic: aren’t traffic signs (not arrow markings) the only legally binding feature? I know DVSA examiners would nonetheless expect a test candidate to follow lane arrows even if no ORU nearby. And is not all design guidance based on monitored accident statistics? So “ahead arrow confusion” is in fact less risky than painting a right-arrow?
Adore your videos! Makes so much sense.
I don't recall ever seeing a roundabout like this - I'm going to have to look more carefully! I know the main roundabouts I use do use right arrows, or if they use straight on arrows have the right number of lanes on the exit so you can go ahead from the right lane.
Straight forward arrow makes sense though, cause you're going straight onto the roundabout, which is like a road but twists, no?
It's supposed to be helping you choose which lane you need for which exit you need off the roundabout.
@ConquerDriving I guess so, but in the same way as how a left arrow is positioned to let you know you go left on the roundabout, the straight arrow tells you to keep following the road (roundabout in this instance) and if you keep doing it you'll reach the 3rd exit.. idk if you get what I mean though
@@ConquerDriving Only spiral roundabouts excel at this. It feels great finding a freshly painted spiral roundabout.
But it's not a road that twists to the right, it's a roundabout junction.
@@Endermanv-ot2if We've got one near where I live, but it has two exits pretty much right on top of each other, so the spiral kinda just sputters out there as there was no way to adequately section off that traffic. It's also very common for a car exiting the penultimate exit to indicate left, then take the second exit, as it's the main thoroughfare and is right beside the first exit.
Not a fun roundabout, all told.
Hmm definitely the government needs to sort this out as it does seem it confuses even the most advanced drivers, so I believe it should be changed to a right arrow, and seeing people with a cars with foreign plates have definitely confused them thinking they can go straight ahead
🎉🎉Thanks to your videos ❤️❤️ helped me alot.
Thanks for an excellent video. I have noticed this anomaly. My bugbear is mini roundabouts. Unless there has been a change, I think it is still illegal to drive over the while blob in the middle, yet on many mini roundabouts this is impossible even in a car, let alone a larger vehicle. And on a motorcycle, in the wet, grip is seriously reduced when cornering on the white stuff.
You will find that very little in the Highway Code is actually supported by law. Crossing the white blob may be considered reckless driving, which is the actual law you're breaking. It is highly unlikely to be dangerous driving, which is the other legal aspect to driving. Those are the only two things which can make certain driving behaviour illegal. Everything else is just mitigating bad practice.
The problem is not the absence of the right turn arrow and the risk or going the wrong way around the island. The problem is that you have 2 lanes marked for ahead and many roundabouts do not have 2 exit lanes for ahead thus creating a problem with 2 in to 1 lane changes. There are several close to me where the road markings are directly contradicted by the direction signs and lane use signs.
Now I know. When I had a meeting about this issue with the local council they did not mention the manual, I thought it was his reason for not putting a right arrow on approach. How does one know if they can use the right lane for straight on? I have experienced the situation at 7:16
There are many roundabouts with 2 lanes on approach that should have right only marks in lane 2, but have none at all, with all the exits being one lane only. Unfamiliar people can end up cutting in front from lane 2 when they are in the wrong one then. Then again, those with 2 exit lanes often have really short merger lanes after the exit. And there are plenty with faded/worn out paintwork that can be awkward for those that are not familiar with it.
Arrows on approach to a roundabout signal a deviation from the standard "ahead left" - if there are two lanes with two ahead arrows, then in my experience the ahead lane has two lanes
What do you teach where 2 lanes become 3 and it's not clear which lane widens? Specifically where a crossing separates the change (eg. at 6:48).
No issue for traffic turning left or right, but for cars going ahead, there could be conflict from both lanes 1 & 2 to get to the new middle lane.
Hi Richard, how are you? Thanks a million for all your videos especially those playlists! They are brilliant! I am learning to drive here in Ireland and I am finding your videos extremely useful! Although you have covered many driving topics, one of the things I find difficult to judge while driving is how and when to make a precise stop exactly in the right place/position at a stop/yield/giveaway line at a junction/signal/roundabout so that I/my car/my car's bonnet is not too far behind or not to far ahead of the line. Could you please make a video explaining the same and give some pointers? Many thanks in advance. :)
at 7:00 I see there's a lane to your left (left or ahead) at 7:02 I would assume the lane to your left (didn't take left, now approaching ahead) will finish there, but it continues to the 3rd exit, and you have to take the 2nd lane on the 3rd exit, while taking the exit. That's confusing as hell.
I remember when the roundabout opposite the police station in Colchester had 4 lanes approaching from Southway. Apparently it was some sort of mistake and the 3rd lane from the left was supposed to be ignored. I'd been told that if any learner on their test attempted to use it, the examiner would automatically fail them. It was corrected quite a few years ago, though you might still remember it and tell me if this was just an old Colchester myth.
They could make a "squiggle arrow".
Not just a plain right arrow, but put a small imaginary circle where the arrow would turn, but make it go around that circle.
Forward -arround-right-arrow
In Norway we rely less on painted road marking, and it's more common to provide lane info on signs, or both, rarely only markings on the road.
During winter, if the markings are covered by ice or snow, all the info is lost, unless there are signs too.
Yes, the signs can be covered too, but if they are, the road is probably covered too.
On the A299 in Kent we had a round-a-bout with a left turn arrow in the right lane, despite being able to go straight ahead from the left lane! They have now removed the arrows, although the signage still suggest the right lane is fine to use to go left... Also have a proliferation of ahead arrows on round-a-bouts with a right turn.
That sounds like an error to me.
That's why I love driving to Kent. Especially in an artic 😆
@@ConquerDriving It did appear after a resurfacing, so I agree, although the large sign board still suggest using the right lane to go to a destination (Ramsgate) that would require turning left, that sign has been there for years.
That reminds me of the Kearsley Interchange in Greater Manchester. 🤣🤣🤣 For real, it's the first time I hear you speaking American English "truck" rather than "lorry". "Sidewalk" is another American word.
I can see your point. Also the bottle neck the form at the exits of some roundabouts.
In Nottingham practically all the roundabouts have right turn arrows or none at all, I could only find one that doesn't on one of its approaches.
Ive found a few more examples of ones without right turn arrows, all motorway junctions, but it seems that the vast majority near me have them
I always thought that an arrow pointing ahead in the 2nd lane means the forward exit has two lanes. A turn right arrow in the RH lane at the roundabout means only turn right as straight ahead has only one exit lane.
There's a roundabout near me where road markings and signs cause confusion. Left lane for 1st 2 exits, right lane for 3rd (4th is used as a snack van park up) and 5th. There's a large sign saying left lane for Livingston but there's no roundabout graphic showing what they mean. The problem is the 2nd exit takes a route to Livingston but almost everyone uses the 3rd exit to go onto the motorway and then to Livingston. Now people arrive and see the left lane for livy but all the right lane traffic that wants the motorway and livy. There are constant clashes and horns every single time I'm there. I've learned to leave space for folk using the wrong lane.
Those road arrow markings have puzzled me for a long time: I had always assumed it was about a quirk of (topology/topography?). However, there is a roundabout around my way where the advance warning sign appears to conflict with the road markings,
Approaching a roundabout with 2 lanes and 3 exits. You want to take the 2nd exit, which lane do you position yourself in?
The straight arrows on the right lane, i feel that more and more drivers are not using the right indicator when turning right as they may feel the marking exempts them from doing so.
I feel like a lot of the roundabouts in my area do have the right arrow in the right lane. In fact, looking at google maps, most of the roundabouts near my house have the right turn arrow (and this is across two counties as I'm on a border). So maybe some counties favour the use of the right arrow instead?
How much can road planners go against what is in the manual? I assume the use of appropriate road markings are situational and road planners can use their own discretion?
Reading the manual, it's clear to me that road designers need to use their own discretion for some things.
Great video. I also find cars turning right at a roundabout will not indicate right but will indicate left after the second exit in front of me waiting. So frustrating.
Or they continue to indicate right as they exit the roundabout. That one's fun.