My almost daily ride takes me through the same roundabout twice. (I like the route because I can ride from my house and don't have to drive the bike anywhere to ride it.) Most days the roundabout is no problem, but from time to time I have two problems--both of them today.

(1) The roundabout is the only part of my ride where I go faster than motor vehicles. The road is one lane but pretty wide leading up to the roundabout, and the roundabout is narrower than the roads leading up to it. Vehicles hurry up to pass me as I come to the roundabout, but then slow down when they get to the roundabout so they are right beside me trying to squeeze into the narrow roundabout lane. Sometimes I'll move over to try to take the lane, but the road is wide enough that vehicles still pull around to get beside me as I enter the roundabout.

(2) When a vehicle is in the roundabout, I try to time my entry to go behind the vehicle, but sometimes vehicles see me coming and stop in the roundabout even though they have the right of way. I stop too, because I'm not going to pull my bike out in front of a motor vehicle that has the right of way and risk being run over. So there we are, vehicle stopped in the roundabout and me stopped waiting to enter. I don't know why they stop. Either it is misplaced courtesy (I'm planning on following a moving vehicle through the roundabout) or perhaps fear that I'm going to pass in front of them and they don't want to hit me. I'd be more sympathetic if it was the second reason rather than the first.

Do you ride through roundabouts? Do you have any trouble dealing with motor vehicles in them? I'm guessing that this problem is not unique to my neighborhood.
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