In this grumpy driver blog, I get grumpy about bad driving on roundabouts. Met any of these drivers recently?

Driver #1: The Roundabout Redundant

The problem starts with roundabouts that consist of just a few markings on the centre of the road. Making it easy for people to avoid the long way around is just asking for trouble. So when entering a roundabout, you always need to watch out for this driver who will have missed the roundabout sign on the way in, thinks it’s a free for all and now they’re going to do their own thing. This driver believes that the shortest way to cross a junction is in a straight line and wonders why everyone else is taking this weird curved route across the road.  Are they drunk?

Driver #2: The Tentative Trier

This driver has problems getting onto the roundabout in the first place. They tentatively, tentatively creep forward, but time after time they miss the perfect opportunity to enter the roundabout, and then in a fluster end up pulling out when they really shouldn’t. This driver has an inability to judge correctly the speed of other cars on the roundabout and seize that window of opportunity when you really just need to put your foot down and get on with it. Frustrating to watch.

Driver #3: The Indicator Illiterate

A common ailment among roundabout users is indicator illiteracy. This driver sometimes doesn’t use any indicator but it’s a mess even when they try to use indicators because they end up using them incorrectly anyway. You can easily identify this driver because of the way they float around aimlessly before exiting when they feel like it (without indicating of course).

Driver #4: The Drifter

This condition tends to manifest alongside indicator illiteracy and is easily identifiable because this driver will move between multiple lanes on a roundabout, sometimes multiple times, with no indication or glance in a mirror. They haven’t a clue where they are going, they may have not yet noticed that there are two lanes, but one thing is certain – they’ll bring everyone else down with them.

Driver #5: The Rulebreaker

You would think that most people who have a driver’s licence would know the most elementary of roundabout rules – cars on the roundabout have the right of way. I always thought that was basic common sense until the day I came across the driver who stopped to let another car onto the roundabout. AND the exits were clear.

Caroline Kidd