Cycling UK Forum

Behave like a car is good advice.

I just position my bike like I would my car at roundabouts, so if turning right in the middle of the turning right lane, give way to traffic from the right and give a clear signal when approaching your exit.

Going straight on its even more important to be in the middle of your lane (normally the left hand lane) as if you keep to the left side traffic will think your turning left at the next exit.

Try to get eye contact with drivers coming form the left if you can as then their less likely to pull out right in front of you.

A good thing about most roundabouts is you won't be holding up the traffic as they won't be doing much more than 20mph around it anyway.

Here’s the Highway Code site for roundabouts for motor vehicles and cyclists.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_069837

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_070338

HC “Roundabouts 77
If you decide to ride round keeping to the left-hand lane you should...”
Only says if then offers advice if you choose to do this, I prefer to ‘behave like a car’.
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I suppose the "outside lane" advice is possibly the safest for timid & inexperienced riders. The main challenge here is to scurry carefully across each exit lane until you get to the one you want. By this method, you are exposed to danger approaching from your right side only. This compares with the perceived horrors of lane-changing on a large multi-lane roundabout, with traffic passing both sides. I can imagine a nervous occasional cyclist being marooned in the middle!
I know my local roundabouts, & I treat each differently. There's at least one where I'd be wary of using the "car" method of positioning for a right turn, there are just too many lanes to cross from the centre lane to the exit, & I feel safer using the outside lane, using due diligence at each exit until I reach mine.

I cross the A3 Motspur Park RAB each day - I go straight on but take the right (outside) lane, contrary to the Highway Code. Reason being that the other inside lane is used for turning left onto the A3. It's not a left-hand only turn lane but all the cars going straight use the outside right lane.

I think people are right in saying treat each junction and roundabout differently.
I use the 'behave like a car' as my general approach but if it was a very big roundabout or with busy traffic I might dismount and use a foot path if possible, especial so if I haven’t been there before as it gives a good chance to decide the best strategy for next time.

Where I live in York there is a roundabout on heworth green which has a marked cycle lane on the left in green all the way round I have wittnessed one accident there where the cyclist was in this lane intending to go off at the second exit only to be hit by a car turning off at the first exit, I could not believe the design when it was first built and I always position myself as a car as soon as it is safe to do so in the centre of the lane and with hi vis vest and clear hand signals plus the sound advice of always trying to establish eye contact with traffic waiting to enter the rounderbout I have always found this to be the safest.

Ian

I had an experience perhaps 10 years ago on a small (but not mini) roundabout on a single carriageway. I took the line a car driver would have done (there are no lanes marked on the roundabout) and the next news the driver of an overtaking car was alongside shouting at me - it could easily have been the directeur sportif informing me I had three minutes on the bunch but a couple working well together were coming up fast.

When we reached the lights a few hundred yards down the road - this was in heavy traffic - he jumped out and began shouting again. He introduced himself as being from some cycling club and suggested I was one oth those people who wrote to the Comic complaining about motorists. The crux of this tale is that he explained that roundabouts are for riding round presumably meaning I should have been in the gutter.

I was so gobsmacked by this pompous twit I never even thought to shout 'On yer bike.'

Haggis wrote:Where I live in York there is a roundabout on heworth green which has a marked cycle lane on the left in green all the way round ...

These just seem so dangerous. I can't imagine why civil engineers thought that it was a good idea to encourage slow moving and vulnerable vehicles to stay in what is essentially a circular blind spot.

My theory is that if it's a small (one lane or similarly quiet) roundabout I take up as much of the road as I can; otherwise I use the foot path.

Mick F wrote:Yes, "Behave Like a Car!!" is the best maxim.

I don't care how big or busy a roundabout is, I occupy the correct lane. It takes guts and a thick skin, but SAFE.

It sure enough does take guts and nerves of steel, I'm not sure about the one on the A1046 namely the Portrack Roundabout, very busy busy too. You are talking of 4 lanes with this one. Then again, there is a cycle-path adjacent to it.

I agree with the above advice about behaving like a car: it takes some getting used to, but the one distinct advantage is visibility. Drivers are more likely to see you because you are in the spot where they are looking.

Asdace wrote: I'm not sure about the one on the A1046 namely the Portrack Roundabout, very busy busy too. You are talking of 4 lanes with this one. Then again, there is a cycle-path adjacent to it.

Portrack Lane?! You must be bonkers

behave like a car, always, every time. MickF has it right. However, there are some provisos.
1. You need to be aware that drivers at busy roundabouts behave like Lewis hamilton starting a GP. They look sideways for a gap and its 0-30 in 2 secs if possible, not looking forward till theyre on the roundabout. So, you could in theory get mown down.
2. Don't be one of those 8 mph toddlers riding one handed, signalling continuously. Put some effort into it and sprint, trying as best to match the speed of the flow. We're not all chris Hoys, but gently twiddling a 40" gear, signalling and whistling, whilst maintaining you have right to the road does no one any favours.

Dean wrote:I agree with the above advice about behaving like a car: it takes some getting used to, but the one distinct advantage is visibility. Drivers are more likely to see you because you are in the spot where they are looking.

Asdace wrote: I'm not sure about the one on the A1046 namely the Portrack Roundabout, very busy busy too. You are talking of 4 lanes with this one. Then again, there is a cycle-path adjacent to it.

Portrack Lane?! You must be bonkers

If I remember, I will take photo of this double madhouse roundabout.

I mostly position myself like a car, but one thing to look out for is that if there is a left-turn only lane, some people will use it to go straight on. Of course this would cause problems with two cars if done in ignorance, but if with a bike some feel justified in undertaking you so I find here I ride to the right hand side of the left-only lane to go straight, or else yield to right but look to left quickly before actually starting off.

I think (I'm getting old and can't remember all the details well) the notion of staying at the periphery of a roundabout was brought in when the DOT tried to ban cyclists from roundabouts - hence the HC bit about walking. The CTC (and probably others) complained a lot; the DOT or whoever drafts the HC had a rethink and eventually retained the status quo position (behave like a car) but added the Walk Round because they wanted that and added Stick to the Edge as some sort of compromise.
Derek

Agree with the general sentiments about positioning like a car.

However within the law, stay flexible and treat each set of prevailing conditions accordingly. What may be safe for a particular journey, junction or layout one moment may have changed a few moments or seconds (or days) later.

An advanced driving course for example teaches a flexible approach keeping safety uppermost, rather than trying to be prescriptive for every single set of road circumstances (which is virtually impossible). So be legal, be safe, but be pragmatic in considering positioning etc.

David

Agree that 'behave like a car' is by far the safest default approach, and that, as several have said, we then need to apply commonsense to modify that approach with respect to individual roundabouts.

Derek, I think you're mistaken: I'm pretty sure that alternative advice has always been there, and it does make sense for nervous grannies on quiet roundabouts with four cars an hour. The warnings it gives about that approach are sensible, but there should probably state more strongly that behaving like a car is generally safer.

Ben