'540ing' a roundabout to save time
Discussion
Picture the scene...
Two lane carriageway leads up to a roundabout where in the am rush hour 90% of cars will turn left. A bit further along the road after the left turn traffic can build up now and again because of a right-hand turning into a residential area, this backs up traffic in the left lane of the two lane carriageway for a bit, but the right hand lane is always fairly clear.
There are no filter lanes or anything at the roundabout, left lane is left, right is right (3 exit roundabout so no straight on), traffic starts to build up a bit for those in the left lane turning left, so some cars will shoot up the right hand lane, 540 the roundabout and more often than not will have to stop somewhere on the roundabout as the exit isn't clear. They will probably 'overtake' 10-15 cars, but as there isn't actually a traffic issue aside from this the overall gain is probably a few seconds by the time you've headed off further down the road (this is Wiltshire, hardly bumper to bumper traffic!)
I've had a fair bit of time to study this, on a good day with nobody 540ing the queue quickly dissipates, on a bad day more and more will start 540ing, which very quickly has a knock on effect that clogs the whole roundabout up and brings all directions to a standstill.
540ers, ok or not? Presumably nothing legally stopping them (although a question mark on blocking the roundabout), but in my opinion pretty bad form, a very small gain that seemingly blocks traffic for other drivers who would otherwise have no issues at that roundabout.
Two lane carriageway leads up to a roundabout where in the am rush hour 90% of cars will turn left. A bit further along the road after the left turn traffic can build up now and again because of a right-hand turning into a residential area, this backs up traffic in the left lane of the two lane carriageway for a bit, but the right hand lane is always fairly clear.
There are no filter lanes or anything at the roundabout, left lane is left, right is right (3 exit roundabout so no straight on), traffic starts to build up a bit for those in the left lane turning left, so some cars will shoot up the right hand lane, 540 the roundabout and more often than not will have to stop somewhere on the roundabout as the exit isn't clear. They will probably 'overtake' 10-15 cars, but as there isn't actually a traffic issue aside from this the overall gain is probably a few seconds by the time you've headed off further down the road (this is Wiltshire, hardly bumper to bumper traffic!)
I've had a fair bit of time to study this, on a good day with nobody 540ing the queue quickly dissipates, on a bad day more and more will start 540ing, which very quickly has a knock on effect that clogs the whole roundabout up and brings all directions to a standstill.
540ers, ok or not? Presumably nothing legally stopping them (although a question mark on blocking the roundabout), but in my opinion pretty bad form, a very small gain that seemingly blocks traffic for other drivers who would otherwise have no issues at that roundabout.
I and a few others do it regularly off the Edinburgh bypass at the A71 junction which is a roundabout with traffic lights at the end of the slip road. I don't see any problem with this as it helps stop traffic queuing back the length of the slip road onto the dual carriageway causing a real hazard.
ukaskew said:
Picture the scene...
Two lane carriageway leads up to a roundabout where in the am rush hour 90% of cars will turn left. A bit further along the road after the left turn traffic can build up now and again because of a right-hand turning into a residential area, this backs up traffic in the left lane of the two lane carriageway for a bit, but the right hand lane is always fairly clear.
There are no filter lanes or anything at the roundabout, left lane is left, right is right (3 exit roundabout so no straight on), traffic starts to build up a bit for those in the left lane turning left, so some cars will shoot up the right hand lane, 540 the roundabout and more often than not will have to stop somewhere on the roundabout as the exit isn't clear. They will probably 'overtake' 10-15 cars, but as there isn't actually a traffic issue aside from this the overall gain is probably a few seconds by the time you've headed off further down the road (this is Wiltshire, hardly bumper to bumper traffic!)
I've had a fair bit of time to study this, on a good day with nobody 540ing the queue quickly dissipates, on a bad day more and more will start 540ing, which very quickly has a knock on effect that clogs the whole roundabout up and brings all directions to a standstill.
540ers, ok or not? Presumably nothing legally stopping them (although a question mark on blocking the roundabout), but in my opinion pretty bad form, a very small gain that seemingly blocks traffic for other drivers who would otherwise have no issues at that roundabout.
If you're going to coin a term, at least use your brain a little bit. It's 270 degrees to turn left by turning right first. (Enter pointing at 12 o'clock, leave at 9 o'clock. Two lane carriageway leads up to a roundabout where in the am rush hour 90% of cars will turn left. A bit further along the road after the left turn traffic can build up now and again because of a right-hand turning into a residential area, this backs up traffic in the left lane of the two lane carriageway for a bit, but the right hand lane is always fairly clear.
There are no filter lanes or anything at the roundabout, left lane is left, right is right (3 exit roundabout so no straight on), traffic starts to build up a bit for those in the left lane turning left, so some cars will shoot up the right hand lane, 540 the roundabout and more often than not will have to stop somewhere on the roundabout as the exit isn't clear. They will probably 'overtake' 10-15 cars, but as there isn't actually a traffic issue aside from this the overall gain is probably a few seconds by the time you've headed off further down the road (this is Wiltshire, hardly bumper to bumper traffic!)
I've had a fair bit of time to study this, on a good day with nobody 540ing the queue quickly dissipates, on a bad day more and more will start 540ing, which very quickly has a knock on effect that clogs the whole roundabout up and brings all directions to a standstill.
540ers, ok or not? Presumably nothing legally stopping them (although a question mark on blocking the roundabout), but in my opinion pretty bad form, a very small gain that seemingly blocks traffic for other drivers who would otherwise have no issues at that roundabout.
mrmr96 said:
If you're going to coin a term, at least use your brain a little bit. It's 270 degrees to turn left by turning right first. (Enter pointing at 12 o'clock, leave at 9 o'clock.
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...
Rubin215 said:
mrmr96 said:
If you're going to coin a term, at least use your brain a little bit. It's 270 degrees to turn left by turning right first. (Enter pointing at 12 o'clock, leave at 9 o'clock.
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...
1st exit = 90 left
2nd exit = 0 (straight line. you'd not describe a road as being 180?!)
3rd exit = 90 right
4th exit = 180 right (u turn)
1st exit after a lap = 270 right
Tonsko said:
1 & 1/4 circles 
. I understood what the OP meant though.
It's not totally clear what the OP is on about, I'll give you that. However why on earth would anyone ever do more than one *complete* circuit of a roundabout? Doing a "270" (turning right to loop round to go left) makes some sense (well it's coherent at least) but to do 1 and 1/4 full circuits? Can't see why you'd ever want to do that unless the roundabout is actually a helter skelter.. I understood what the OP meant though.
mrmr96 said:
It's not totally clear what the OP is on about, I'll give you that. However why on earth would anyone ever do more than one *complete* circuit of a roundabout? Doing a "270" (turning right to loop round to go left) makes some sense (well it's coherent at least) but to do 1 and 1/4 full circuits? Can't see why you'd ever want to do that unless the roundabout is actually a helter skelter.
Hm. I see your point. Also not very clear. Ok, so I was thinking that the Op wanted to turn left, but went in the right hand lane to go around it and eventually exiting where he wanted to. So the point where he enters the roundabout, he goes round it, past the point he entered (1 circle ) and then continues onto his exit for the extra qtr. "540ing" to get off at an exit that is blocked by a queue trying to go somewhere else = good lateral thinking
"540ing" to get off at the exit everyone is queuing for = bad form
(In case anyone is confused by the first case: picture a 4 way roundabout, two lanes on entry - left and straight in one, right turn in the other. there is a queue of traffic in the left-hand lane waiting to go straight on. In this case I think it is perfectly fine to use the empty right lane to reach the roundabout, go all the way around and then leave by what would have been the first exit)
"540ing" to get off at the exit everyone is queuing for = bad form
(In case anyone is confused by the first case: picture a 4 way roundabout, two lanes on entry - left and straight in one, right turn in the other. there is a queue of traffic in the left-hand lane waiting to go straight on. In this case I think it is perfectly fine to use the empty right lane to reach the roundabout, go all the way around and then leave by what would have been the first exit)
This has been done before. Are we really getting fixated on the actual degree measurements here? I think we all know what the OP means. That particular maneuver is legal but bad form as someone said on here. I don't do it but some have argued why queue and waste time when you can do it legally. On one hand it's stupid to queue, on the other its bad manners and arrogance to not consider others. I think the main issue we Brits have with it is that it’s basically queue jumping and we don't like that as a society.
Let us suppose that you could leave queueing traffic in a major road by turning left into a side street, go along a minor road parallel to the one in which traffic was queueing, and subsequently rejoin the queueing traffic in the major road, would there be any reason not to do that? Would things change depending on whether you might be holding up traffic on the major road where you rejoined? Is that any different from the going round the roundabout scenario?
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