'540ing' a roundabout to save time

[MarkK]

wst said:

here's less bullst in Pamplona.

As for "to whit", whoop de fking doo, I can remember a four letter word. I could think of a few others for someone with your attitude problem.

Edited by wst on Friday 21st February 18:22

Oh dear had to resort to swear words, did the bog roll run out?

[SK425]

MarkK said:

Congratulations on the use of "whit" as well - who says word of the day bog roll doesn't work.

I do. It's "to wit".

[wst]

SK425 said:

MarkK said:

Congratulations on the use of "whit" as well - who says word of the day bog roll doesn't work.

I do. It's "to wit".

Wow, I'd always heard it pronounced as if there were an h in there. Everything I knew is a lie!

[MarkK]

SK425 said:

I do. It's "to wit".

Hehe wish I'd spotted that!

[Kinky]

Ladies, please put your handbags away before they're confiscated.

[Ross_T_Boss]

I like to use the 'does it cause someone else to brake, or slow their journey?' approach.

In this context. If traffic is queued to turn left, with a single lane exit to the left, you should stick to it. Otherwise the left lane is going to become car park. I have employed the tactic before where it's a dual carriageway, and nipping round and exiting into the right-hand lane is not going to cause any hold-up. Or where most traffic is going straight - no point waiting for no reason.

[Snowboy]

Jon1967x said:

What's 0 degrees then?

It's either stopping at the junction.
Or going straight over.

It depends on which of the two styles of description you're using.

Both are equally valid.

[Red Devil]

Snowboy said:

Jon1967x said:

What's 0 degrees then?

It's either stopping at the junction.
Or going straight over.

It depends on which of the two styles of description you're using.

Both are equally valid.

It's not styles of description, but two entirely separate parameters. One is measuring a deviation from the direction of travel, the other angles within a circle. Understanding depends on being clear about the terms of reference. Lack of clarity over that is usually the cause of most arguments. If you start from different bases without a (road) map the chances of you reaching the same destination as the other person are slim.

[jbsportstech]

Do you comit an offence by 540ing.

I have done it once or twice before when traffic is quing badly onto a busy roundabout were I just want forst exit left.

The roundabout in question gets blocked by cars and so from my direction cars are pretty much blocked giving way to cars from the right. So I have taken the inside lane and gone around so the car behind me is now having to giveway to me.

I suppose its bad form from a social point of view.

[clarkey540i]

Rubin215 said:

No, sorry, I disagree.

First exit (immediate left) is 90, straight ahead is 180, hard right is 270, all the way round and back the way you came is 360.

Anything after that is an increase of 90 (assuming a four entrance roundabout) so a 540 is once all the way round then straight ahead from your original approach.

Common sense really...

First exit is bearing 90 degrees left. Straight over is a bearing of 0 degrees, right is a bearing of 90 degrees right, turning round and going back the way you came is a bearing of 180 degrees so turning left by going right 3 times is a 270.

[New POD]

It's perfectly acceptable, morally and legally.

[keith2.2]

1) It's clear that the OP is talking about. Pistonheads - Pedantry Matters
2) People are confusing degrees in a circle with degrees of rotation
3) If you're doing a full loop of a roundabout to turn left so as to avoid sitting in a queue in the "correct" lane, then you are adding to the problem because YOU are stopping traffic in that queue from getting onto the roundabout UNLESS everyone in that lane is travelling straight on, and the straight-on exit to the roundabout is blocked. In this case, I think the OP states that it's a 3-exit roundabout with no straight-on exit (coming from the direction being described).

I have no issue with merge-in-turn (I wish people would do it) but looping to turn left is aholery.

Now can someone please explain how many degrees are involved if I drift around a roundabout, take the "straight on" exit but leave backwards? :-P

[carpetsoiler]

Synchromesh said:

We've had this thread a few times before so instead of typing a serious reply I'll just give you picture of what came into my head when I read the thread title...

Exactly what popped into my head too, good to know there's a fellow massive loser in our midst!

[Blakewater]

Ride Drive actually promote it on their website as a legitimate overtaking opportunity and preferable to breaking the speed limit to overtake people. They seem to suggest some other dodgy manoeuvres here, such as taking the outside lane and turning left in front of an HGV, that in my mind are more dangerous than exceeding the speed limit just to get past someone efficiently.

http://www.ridedrive.co.uk/driving-tips-07d.htm

[Jon1967x]

The advice seems to be basically that if you can burm someone off at a junction it's ok to be in the wrong lane.

You could take the view that you should always get in the shortest lane and then filter across in the junction, let the car next to you beat you but as the car behind them may not be able to go because of traffic and because you've obscured their view a gap will form you can take.

I don't subscribe to this at all but it's a practice you see from time to time

[SK425]

Blakewater said:

Ride Drive actually promote it on their website as a legitimate overtaking opportunity and preferable to breaking the speed limit to overtake people. They seem to suggest some other dodgy manoeuvres here, such as taking the outside lane and turning left in front of an HGV, that in my mind are more dangerous than exceeding the speed limit just to get past someone efficiently.

Although to be fair, that page makes plenty of mention of doing it all safely and unobtrusively and only if there's benefit. I can picture how all of the manoeuvres they describe on that page could be carried out safely and sensibly, and I can picture how they could all be carried out stupidly, pointlessly and dangerously. I've never driven with RideDrive so I can only guess which of the two they might really mean, although if I had to guess...

[Blakewater]

To some extent, I think you would be taking a gamble over how fast other drivers were going to pull away. An HGV driver is going to be slower in a drag race but may decide to pull out a little sooner than you and you may end up being squashed or having to do a full loop of the roundabout to take your exit.

[SK425]

Blakewater said:

To some extent, I think you would be taking a gamble over how fast other drivers were going to pull away. An HGV driver is going to be slower in a drag race but may decide to pull out a little sooner than you and you may end up being squashed or having to do a full loop of the roundabout to take your exit.

It could be a bit of a gamble, and it would be wise to have a plan for when it doesn't work out, but as they suggest in the article you can be assessing the way the drivers ahead are driving, so you might have already seen how enthusiastically they like to pull away from slow or stopped. That's assuming the way it played out meant that you actually had to come to a stop - although in that case you would to the right of the other vehicle waiting at the roundabout, so you ought to be able to get moving first.

This isn't really different to any other overtake. There's a point at which you have to choose whether to commit or decline, and if the planets aren't aligned at that point the overtake doesn't - well, shouldn't - happen.

I do take your point that it might just be easier (not legal of course) to exceed the speed limit a bit to get past, but while they used that example to set the scene for the article, it's really just about different overtaking methods - perhaps there wasn't an opportunity to pass even if you were happy to bust the limit.