Right of way

[River Don]

Picture this.

You're driving on a straight road and you approach a mini roundabout.

There is a junction there where you can turn off left or right onto a minor road.

Now, you want to drive straight across on the main road but at the same time a car on the opposite side of the road wants to turn right cutting across the flow of the traffic.

Who has right of way?

It's just happened to me, don't worry no collision but it confused me.

[godlike1]

Where is the mini roundabout before or after the junction or this junction the mini roundabout itself?

If the roads are coming of the mini roundabout I'd say I don't really know as you'd both be on the right therefore is both your right of way?

[Glyn_Wigley]

I was curious about this so I've looked up the Highway Code.

It says mini-roundabout should be treated in the same way as a normal size roundabout.

The only thing it says is to give priority to traffic approaching from your right (unless there are signs telling you to do otherwise).

I'd take this to mean that the oncoming car turning right is approaching you (as it will be crossing your path), whereas from his point of view you aren't approaching him but turning off and passing him without crossing his path.

From that, it reads to me that you should give way to him. He doesn't need to give way to you as you're not interfering with his progress.

Filo's take on it might be better, though.

[Bentley Bullet]

I'd say you have got the right of way because you are not crossing anyone's path, whereas the driver opposite is crossing yours.

[Nudga]

Right Turner has right of way

[River Don]

To be clear the it's a cross junction with a mini roundabout in the centre of it.

Most of the time traffic is flowing straight along the main road, it's rare for cars to be turning off onto the minor road.

I was checking nothing was coming from the right and I was already into the roundabout when I realised the car coming opposite was going right.

If anything he was a behind me going into the roundabout, if he hadn't slowed he'd have gone my car somewhere behind the rear passenger door.

Whatever, Its taught me to approach that roundabout with more caution in future.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Like Glyn says, on a roundabout, you give way to traffic coming from your right. So the other car has right of way.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I always slow right down at mini roundabouts because you just don't know how people are going to judge them. Me included. It's the lack of space that you have to account for people's actions. I'm pretty sure the intention of them was precisely to make drivers slow down and think, like those urban roads in Holland where they've done away with the kerb and left no demarcation between road and busy pavement.

[DonnyOsmond]

Depends on who was on the mini roundabout first, if you were on it first they should have waited. If it was pretty much the same time and they were indicating that they were going right you should have waited.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Depends on who was on the mini roundabout first, if you were on it first they should have waited. If it was pretty much the same time and they were indicating that they were going right you should have waited.

Nope.

If you, by driving into the roundabout, obstruct someone who would be coming across you from your right, you are in the wrong.

Trick is to think of them as already being on the roundabout. The Give Way lines that they cross to come into the roundabout don't have any effect because there's no car coming across them from their right to give way to. They have right of way to be on the roundabout. You have to give way.

[River Don]

Oh well, I'm glad I'm not the only one confused about it.

It's reminded me not everyone is going straight over this roundabout and it needs more caution.

[Janso]

Just treat the mini roundabout the same way you would a "proper" one and you'll be reyt.

[Bentley Bullet]

Like Glyn says, on a roundabout, you give way to traffic coming from your right. So the other car has right of way.

Both cars are to the right of each other!

[BillyStubbsTears]

No BB. One car is not approaching the other one from the right.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Like Glyn says, on a roundabout, you give way to traffic coming from your right. So the other car has right of way.

Both cars are to the right of each other!

But only one of them is indicating to cross the path of the other. The situation is not the same for both of them.

[River Don]

Depends on who was on the mini roundabout first, if you were on it first they should have waited. If it was pretty much the same time and they were indicating that they were going right you should have waited.

This is probably it.

It was quite marginal I was on the roundabout first, I slowed but I didn't stop, in future I will stop there. I'm pretty sure the bloke turning right was going too fast for a 20 zone, I fact I think he accelerated quite hard into the junction before braking and wanted to get on his horn. Had he been going the speed I was, it wouldn't have been a problem.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Good call RD. The sensible approach is to look to make eye contact and be grown up about it. If some obnoxious Kitson takes advantage of that, good luck to them, let them have a little meaningless win.

[keith79]

Where is this roundabout?

[Bentley Bullet]

Think of the roundabout like a crossroad. If you're going straight on and the car coming the other way is turning right, across your path, he should give way to you.

Of course, it is all matter of common sense.

[River Don]

Where is this roundabout?

Do you know York?

[Glyn_Wigley]

You think of a roundabout like a roundabout. That's why it has it's own section in the Highway Code.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Think of the roundabout like a crossroad. If you're going straight on and the car coming the other way is turning right, across your path, he should give way to you.

Of course, it is all matter of common sense.

And this is why I slow down to a crawl at mini-roundabouts. The roads are full of people whose ignorance of the rules is only matched by their certainty that they are right.

[Bentley Bullet]

Supposing BOTH cars want to turn right?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Then both stop and make eye contact to determine what to do.

Exactly the same as at a crossroads if two cars are both wanting to turn right into the main road. I have that happen regularly at a little junction in Derbyshire when I'm coming home from work. You both stop and one or the other gives a gesture to cede right if way to the other.

Occasionally, the person on the other side takes it in themself to decide they are going first, regardless. In which case, good luck to them.

[Bentley Bullet]

At crossroads if you are both turning right you are supposed to pass each other and then turn.

If one driver wants to turn right and the other driver wants to go straight on then the driver who is turning right should wait until the driver going straight has passed.

[Glyn_Wigley]

At crossroads if you are both turning right you are supposed to pass each other and then turn.

If one driver wants to turn right and the other driver wants to go straight on then the driver who is turning right should wait until the driver going straight has passed.

And how, pray, is this anything to do with what the Highway Code tells you to do at roundabouts?

[River Don]

There's a crossroads like that at the Ivanhoe in Sprotbrough.

It's quite busy nowadays, you can get stuck there for quite a longtime hoping someone will let you out.

[Glyn_Wigley]

There's a crossroads like that at the Ivanhoe in Sprotbrough.

It's quite busy nowadays, you can get stuck there for quite a longtime hoping someone will let you out.

Presumably BB would advise you treat it like a roundabout.

[Bentley Bullet]

Why didn't you ask Billy that after his last post?

Mini roundabouts can be very confusing regarding who has the right of way. As Billy says, often the procedure is determined by gestures from the drivers as to who goes first. Sometimes those gestures might not comply with the highway code, but common sense prevails instead.

I maintain that if two drivers arrive at a mini-roundabout at the same time, facing each other and one wants to turn right and the other wants to go straight on the most likely option would be that the driver turning right would give way.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Well you'd best write your own Highway Code then BB, because that's absolutely the opposite of what the real one says.