Random11

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.

John E

There are two near my house.


Leucadia Bl. is a heavily used fairly major connector road, and Hermes and Hymettus are lower-volume side streets. The complication at the Hymettus roundabout (the easternmost of the two) is that Leucadia Bl. has enough of a slope to slow eastbound cyclists significantly. (Conversely, I can pretty easily match vehicle speeds westbound.) I normally bypass the Hymettus roundabout going east, because this is easy to do, and take the lane on the westbound approach. At the nearly-level Hermes intersection, I take the lane both ways.

JohnDThompson 

Take the lane when you enter the roundabout. Don't let the cars pull alongside you and potentially run you off the road when they exit the roundabout without noticing you. That's what the Wisconsin Department of Transportation says to do:

Driving bicycles in a roundabout

- If you are riding on the shoulder or bike lane, merge into the traffic lane before the shoulder ends.
- Signal your intent to move into traffic.
- Once inside the roundabout, don't hug the curb.
- Ride close to the middle of the lane to prevent cars from passing and cutting you off.
- Watch for cars waiting to enter the roundabout, as they may not see you.
- If you do not want to ride your bike in the roundabout, use the sidewalk and proceed as a pedestrian.

https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/safety...uts/works.aspx

Random11

Good information, John. I think this post would fit better in the road cycling forum, so I'm going to repost it there.

Miele Man

South Central Ontario, Canada has fallen in love with roundabouts and is in the process of installing them in just about any intersection previously controlled by traffic lights.

On one street in Cambridge, Ontario; Franklin Blvd. there are now NINE roundabouts within an 8 kilometres distance with a few more planned. Some of those roundabouts allow the right most lane to turn left in the roundabout and some of them the right most lane is straight through lane only. It can be confusing and tricky on a bicycle if you're wanting to go left in the roundabout as you have to move into the left lane before you get to the roundabout. A strong sprint is good there.

Also, during rush hour traffic often backs up on the east-west roads to the roundabouts because the southbound traffic is so heavy there are no breaks in the traffic flow. Trying to cross those roundabouts in the pedestrian crossing zones at that time of day is playing Russian roulette with the traffic acting as the bullets. Crazy designs with high mounds covered with vegetaiton in the center of the roundabouts so you can't see what's coming around from the opposite side.

In Waterloo Region the roundabouts are small in diameter and have those vision blocking mounds on them and that makes them dangerous for everyone including automobile traffic. Plus transport trucks need both lanes in order to get around them. Sometimes a transport truck gets stuck in them. traffic sure backs up in a hurry then.

Cheers

Moe Zhoost

My ride routes have a number of roundabouts. Since I know that I will generally transit them faster than a car, I take the lane 100 or so yards before. It's hard to gauge side traffic until I'm about to enter but I cover my brakes in preparation, not to do a panic stop, but to reduce speed to allow the traffic to pass. Sometimes, as you say, motorists will stop for me, sometimes in a position that almost blocks my passage. This confusing and aggravating situation is best handled with prudence. On many occasions, vehicles will short circuit the roundabout by going the wrong way. The drivers don't want to turn 270° when they feel that it's safe to cheat and do an illegal 90° turn. This seems to happen at low traffic times like early morning. Large vehicles, like buses, will routinely short circuit them because they cannot physically negotiate them the right way round. My understanding is that there is a legal exception that allows them to do it with caution.

Like every other aspect about riding on streets, becoming savvy to interactions with other vehicles is essential.

CliffordK

We have a couple of moderate sized 2-lane (or half 1 lane, half 2 lane) roundabouts here. There are sidewalks and flashy lights to bypass them, but I usually just ride through them at about car pace (usually speeding up slightly). Paying careful attention to cars that are entering and crossing my direction of riding.

I prefer either going 1/4 or 1/2 way through the roundabouts, and will plan my routes to avoid doing a 3/4.

I don't think I've ever had a car that was actually in the roundabout stop short, although I have had cars entering it stop for me, in particular if I'm exiting a median strip bike path to enter the roundabout.


Several 1-lane roundabouts that are more like an after-thought of putting a big planter in the middle of the road. They seem like the most stupid design one could imagine. Usually in pretty low traffic areas, and they never seem to be much of a problem.

Wilbur Bud

I ride roundabouts every day. Agree you have to take the lane moderately early and I mean really be centered in the lane so there is no doubt a motor vehicle can fit in the same space.. I also have many a driver stop in the roundabout to "give way" to the cyclist who is waiting his turn to have the right of way. Like you, I never enter in front of one of these drivers but it does make them mad sometimes. We have a significant number of two lane roundabouts, and my last one on the way home each day I need to be in the leftmost lane in order to travel 270 degrees in the roundabout to exit going home, and watching overtaking traffic and timing the signal and movement into the left lane can be difficulty at times, so it become more critical to move early.

Overall I like roundabouts and really they are just part of the road for me. The risk and close calls I have had have always been in multi-lane roundabouts where I am stating on the inside lane a turn or two before exit, and then someone oncoming in the two lane entry from their direction is shielded by another vehicle, doesn't really view the intersection and just keeps coming through to make a right turn into the same space when I am exiting the roundabout, so I've had to learn to look for those and then take the risk to slow down a bit until I am sure the motorist is actually looking where they are going. I don't like slowing down in the roundabout.

The other fun part of two lane roundabouts are impatient motorists who cannot believe they had to delay momentarily their entry into the roundabout and the pass urgently on the right to go around once they are in the roundabout. I keep waiting to see one receive a ticket for that but never happened yet.

Good luck and keep riding.

rydabent

Street engineers in Lincoln have fallen in love with roundabouts. When they paved one street out in the suburbs they put in a string of 5 of the things.

Hondo Gravel

I first experienced roundabouts in Sedona at first drove me nuts but after awhile I like them. The traffic moved efficiently through busy intersections.

fietsbob

West end of town ODOT replaced a T intersection with a round about and it is a big improvement ..

cccorlew

I'm shocked at the roundabout love here. I always think of them as cyclist elimination zones. I hate them when I'm in a car, but REALLY hate them when I'm on a bike.

caloso

Roundabouts seem to be like the metric system and universal healthcare. The rest of the world seems to have figured them out, but Americans refuse to.

Miele Man

What I detest about roundabouts in Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) is t hat they're a small diameter, have mounds in t he middle that block you vision of vehicles behind them, and they have pedestrian crossings EXACTLY where vehicles leaving the roundabout are speeding up. Just about the worst design you can come up with as regards pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Cheers

tyrion

I like roundabouts. Way better than stop signs. It is problematic when cars stop for my bike when I have the flow figured out and am planning on pulling in behind them, but most of the time I have no interaction with cars on roundabouts (I generally avoid rush hour traffic).

rydabent

Traffic engineers seem to be a strange breed. They have been big on roundabouts for several years now. But-----------coming to you soon is the double cross over. It is a complicated deal where they have you driving to the left to get back to the right side of the hiway. A great example of that is in Junction City Ks where Hiway 77 meets IS 70. It involves several stop lights, and just seems weird to drive left to stay right.

Squeeze

I live near two roundabouts. One is on a regular road in between a hospital and a residential area where people are going around 30 - 35 mph and I get through it fine on a bicycle. I stand up with the idea that makes me more visible, take the lane, and ride through it like a car.

The second is in a shopping center and it is a freak show. I see people all too often going the WRONG WAY because they don't seem to grasp the concept of a roundabout. There's a popular gas station/convenience store in this shopping center and the fastest/closest way to leave the area is to turn LEFT at the roundabout instead of turning right and going around it in the correct way. So often I'll be entering the shopping center (on a bike or in my car) and see someone coming at me, in my lane, going the wrong way.

And of course, honking the horn at them only makes them react rudely, as if I'M the one in the wrong.

Artmo

We have exactly the same here with pedestrian crossings immediately before and immediately after the roundabouts. Absolutely nuts!

davester

Sounds like a badly engineered roundabout perhaps with insufficient signage. In much of the world (especially the UK) there are very stringent guidelines on the engineering of roundabouts, which include angle-of-entry, lane deflection, sightlines, truck, cyclist and pedestrian accomodation, etc. Properly engineered roundabouts work really well, vastly better than traffic light or stop sign intersections. However, here in the US it's the wild west, with some jurisdictions adopting European standards and others allowing the local traffic engineer (who may have never studied roundabout engineering) to do what he wants, resulting in some terrible designs.

Barry2 

Loved roundabouts in the UK.
Take the lane, hit em at speed, make sure you know what lane to be in and when, big hand signals, and out.

Now I’m in the US.....A Lot-O-Californians don’t know the rules. Cars seem to bluff there way around them.
Not nearly as much fun on a bike.

Barry

gios 

There's a roundabout in my daily circuit. My experience has shown that when you enter at around the same time as a four wheeler they will slow and let you in first. Which is nice. I give'm a wave.

sovende

This applies to everyone! I suggest that rules and regulations of the Dept of Transportation for the governmental unit (State, Province etc) be reviewed to determine how cyclists need to behave on the roadways. Many places treat bicycles as "vehicles" that have the same rights as motor vehicles AND must obey the "rules of the road". Not everyone knows this (or believes it) 🙁. Rights and rules aside, in motor vehicle vs bicycle situations, the bike almost always loses 😬. Keep your head "on a swivel" to include what's coming up from behind! While there are nay sayers, I like helmet or eye pro mounted mirrors that allow me to "clear to the rear"!
BTW, the comment about Americans RE: the metric system, national (universal) health care AND roundabouts, couldn't be more appropriate 😜.

fietsbob

From # 11 ... West bound on US 101 on a bicycle you don't really interact with the round about, just keep to the right side of the lane.
East bound, I veer to the left, use the cross walk , That T junction, and also never need to interact with the 2 lanes going round...

Miele Man

The vast majority of the roundabouts I've encountered in Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) are so small an 18-wheeler requires both lanes to get through them.

Cheers

Wilbur Bud

I've found that this is often in the law, that is, commercial vehicles of a certain size are ceded the two lanes upon entry. I was really angry the first time about ten years ago when I was already in the outside lane of a two lane roundabout, have entered before the 18-wheeler arrived, but it didn't delay him from pulling on in, activating his turn signal and beginning to drive my way despite I was screaming and waving at his right-hand side rearview as he went by, noticing that he was looking directly at me amidships the trailer. Ultimately he chose to put a tire up on the central island on his way through. Once I learned the law permitted/authorized occupation of both lanes, then I changed my approach slightly to make sure I always have a much better headstart in when a commercial vehicle is following me.