ADP

How many times has this happened to you? your'e sat at a roundabout, during a busy period, you see a sensible gap and go for it, but the **** at the next exit whose car is slow as dog poo crawls on and forces you to brake, you then have to give way to him as he trundles round, normally in the wrong lane also............FFS people in slow cars, please realise some of us can accelerate from 0-20 in less than 10 minutes. Im glad I dont ride a motorbike, otherwise Id probably have driven into the side of numerous cars by now.

[/rant over]

UFO

Slow cars aren’t the biggest problem, it's just people who don't have a clue how the roads (in general) work, especially roundabouts! People should be continuously tested throughout their driving careers.

After all OFFSTED have been regularly assessing schools and colleges for years now.

Who knows it may even cut the number of speeding motorists and improve safety?

what would scooby do

Yay to mandatory 5 yearly re-tests and eye-sight tests..

Old_Fart

It happens to me very rarely as , being a bike rider, I have learnt to be observant and anticipate the actions of other road users. Morons in fast cars thinking they have some sort of priority over other drivers are what get's my goat...why can't all people just be a bit more courteous/thoughtfull whilst driving?
Rgds
Chuck (STI and ZX6R driver/rider)

Suresh

Over here in Holland almost nobody indicates at roundabouts (or anywhere else for that matter), so you never know which exit they plan to take. I pull out on people all the time (indicating whilst doing so where appropriate, of course ) for that exact reason and don't give a flying **** how upset they might get about it.

Suresh

ADP

With the greatest respect, whether you ride a motorbike or not, you can NEVER fully anticipate some peoples moves. Some people WILL just pull out if they think they can squeeze into a gap, they dont care whether it forces you to brake or not - whether you are on a bike, Ferrari or Mondeo - they are just pig headed.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Agree with Chuck - amazing how a biker gets almost a 6th sense when it comes to anticipating the actions of car drivers - self-preservation


The only other things I'd say is tolerance and patience...

Gridlock Mikey

I don't mind having to brake for other motorists so long as i'm not having to take evasive manoevres (sp?) or the scoob doesn't come flying off of the parcel shelf
Like the bikers, you do get a sense of being able to tell when someone is gonna do summat daft. Sometimes it takes a mere tickle of the brakes and a problem never arises.
When I have to jam anchors on though due to someone elses in ability to drive. THAT WINDS ME UP [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Mikey

NotoriousREV

I had an incident like this a while back.

Big roundabout, you can see every entrance/exit. Every road on/off the roundabout is a dual carriageway. I was turning right.

I get onto the roundabout, accelerating pretty quickly, as Scoobs do. Guy in a Cavalier pulls out in front of me from the "left" junction, staring at me the whole time. I'd anticpated this action and slowed down. He's now heading in the same direction as me and has joined the dual carriageway in the outside lane and is doing 40mph. After half a mile, we're up to 50 mph and my slip road is approaching so I drop into the inside lane after waiting in vain for him to move over.

Now I admit, I did start to undertake him. As I get along side him, he winds the passenger window down, so I wind mine down.
"I've got a baby in the car" he shouts.
"Well stop driving like a tit and pulling out on other people then" I replied.

hail-hail

My problem with roundabouts is the premature indicators
i.e. I am turning left off the roundabout in about 5 exits time so I'll screw everyone up by indicating now ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[Edited by hail-hail - 11/19/2003 10:12:36 AM]

TelBoy

I love old people who have been taught to indicate right when going straight over a roundabout, and then switch to indicating left, usually at the same time they cut me up, just before exiting.

Old_Fart

The thing is we do have very quick cars and many people will underestimate how quickly we'll go from standstill to rapid. What would be a perfectly acceptable gap to pull out into on a roundabout in front of most cars will be very quickly eroded when it's a scoob being driven 'spiritedly'(aggressively?), so as *we* are the ones who create the situation then we should accept some responsibilty for the event. Just IMHO, and again it's the fact that the acceleration differerntials between Nissan Micra and *any* bike which makes you more concious of it...scoobs are sloooow
Chuck

Old_Fart

Oh! BTW at the same time I hate self-righteous morons who will pull into a roundabout in front of someone knowing full well that they will make the guy brake..ie big roundabout, flowing around at 30mph, guy pulls out because he can't be bothered to wait for a gap.
[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Chuck

andyr

At roundabouts my favourite is to slowly pull out in front of a car who is going round without indicating but you've been able to anticipate that they're doign this despite the total lack of use of indicators.
Obviously you don't do this on a roundabout where the cars are doing 50mph but as some numpty serenely wafts round oblivious to the fact that indicators DO sometimes assist other road users it can be quite fun to gently move off and then this gimp realises that they may actually have to use their brakes.
Dong this on slow roundabouts has no real element of danger and it may wake the other driver from their stupor - a friendly wave at the appropriate moment in the maneoever may also help !

NotoriousREV

People who turn right from the left hand lane should also be shot on sight.

ADP

another great one, actually that happens at the roundabout Im on about is people going right, so they sit in the right lane of the dual carriageway for 2 miles, refusing to pull over, holding everyone up and then turning right when they get to the roundabout. You dont need to be in the outside lane just because in 5 mins youll be turning right! its almost like they are affraid to move out of the lane in a middle lane motorway driver type of action.

ADP

hmm, one of the biggest probelms of owning a fast car, esp something like an Impreza that may not look as fast as a shiney red Ferrari is that people severly underestimate the cars abilities ie, how fast you can accelerate, how much speed you can carry through roundabouts/corners etc etc and hence things like people pulling out in front of you is often because they just dont realise that a car is capable of moving at such pace. Many people have never driven anything faster than a 1.1 Nova and simply have no concept of a performance car.

hail-hail

What the law on roundabout anyway,
i.e. a round about on a dual carridge way = I can blat round it at 60mph without fear that if I mash into someone who misjudged my speed, it's their fault?

SiDHEaD

My boss has a scoob, and just before I bought mine his bit of advice was always "watch out for **** on islands who don't bother to work out how fast you are going round and just pull out". And it was too true!!

Andy

Jiggerypokery

I had an accident on a roundabout once, where an 18 year-old who had just passed his test pulled out in front of me. I locked up (not in the scoob) and dented the front wing. It gets worse, he had driven down a one-way street to get to the roundabout, and his excuse? "The boys in the back told me I was clear to go" (!). He paid for the damage thankfully.

Another group of people who annoy me on roundabouts are the ones who check if it's clear long before getting to the roundabout and don't bother looking again, in the hope that nothing changes in the 5 seconds it took them to reach the junction.

[Edited by Jiggerypokery - 11/19/2003 10:55:12 AM]

Leslie

Well said Chuck and Puff.

STI and recently ex ZX6R driver/rider.

Les

NotoriousREV

In fact, while I think about it, car drivers aren't taught how to use roundabouts properly. It wasn't until I did my bike test that my instructor imparted this bit of knowledge:

"The idea with a roundabout is not to stop if at all possible. As you approach the roundabout, look for a gap, match your speed to the gap and get into the gap. If there isn't a gap, then obviously you will have to slow or stop, but thats a last resort"

Some women in Micras need to learn this rather than arriving at the line, stopping dead and then checking for traffic.

zoog

What about the guys who go the wrong way round mini roundabouts when turning right, to cut off the corner?

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Soooooo true, a personal pet hate of mine too

Nox

I also hate those people that will pull along side you when your in the left lane to go straight on, and then they try to go straight on, but while doing so also attempt to take the front of your car off!!

ADP

people stopping at roundabouts is a huge cause of accidents - generally what happens is person A arrives at the roundabout, there is nothing coming but they stop anyway, but person B who is behind has looked ahead, seen it is clear and has "expected" person A to go straight through the roundabout without stopping - but person A doesnt, and person B goes into the back of person A.

It is ofcourse person Bs fault, technically, but person B will always argue that person A had no need to stop and wasnt expecting them to do so. One to look out for.

Cosworth427

Turning right on the left roundabout lane if there are only 2 lanes available isn't 100% safe, but it depends on how traffic is. 3-4 lanes is another story.

Sometimes I have to do this because switching lanes before a roundabout isn't possible - just the way drivers are in most roads around here.

SiDHEaD

ADP - i've done that Barsteward infront stopped well over the line for basically no reason, i was looking right "yup plenty of time to go". look back infront ARRRRGH crunch..

Andy

WRX Wannabe

People who approach the round-a-bout and can clearly see NOTHING coming and STILL stop [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Look ahead you dumb F***S

Jiggerypokery

People who, while going straight ahead in the left hand lane, go straight ahead, literally! ...leaving no room for the person in the right hand lane on the roundabout.