Speed limit on roundabouts

[Mahoolah]

Is there a national speed limit for roundabouts?

Sorry if this has already been asked, the search is down and google was inconclusive.

thanks!

[covboy]

If there is no posted limit, it should be the same as the road you’re travelling on.

We have a few round here where a 40 mph road crosses a 30 mph road and there are limit signs for 30 on the road with 40mph approach.

[worsy]

Roundabouts have the same limit as indicated for the road they are on.

[Ollyc]

AFAIK it's whatever the speed for the road you are using. If there was a speed change for the roundabout you would see speed signs on entry and exit of said roundabout.

Common sense says you do not use 60mph to exit on jct 3 of the roundabout. Normal road sense shouold deem you to slow down. But unless otherwise stated speeds are the same as that which the road you are traviling along.

[Dr Jekyll]

So if a roundabout is joined by a dual carriageway and a single, both NSL, is it 60 or 70?

[oldsoak]

The limit is that which was posted before the roundabout...a'la if you are pootling along on a NSL 60 that limit applies until another sign tells you differently, doesn't matter if the road is as straight as a die or has a RA mid section.
You'd be a fool to negotiate a RA at 60 though.........

[mrmr96]

Dr Jekyll said:

So if a roundabout is joined by a dual carriageway and a single, both NSL, is it 60 or 70?

I reckon 70mph as there's a separation of your lanes vs. oncoming lanes.

However if I was doing 69mph it wouldn't be the 60/70mph limit I would be concerned with getting into trouble over. No doubt there are cars which can negotiate a roundabout at that speed (I know because I own one) but it would perhaps be ill advised to do so as people looking to enter the roundabout wouldn't expect you to be going that speed. You (on roundabout) would have right of way but that wouldn't stop them from pulling out on you. So if you're going to do it, then be careful.

[BliarOut]

oldsoak said:

The limit is that which was posted before the roundabout...a'la if you are pootling along on a NSL 60 that limit applies until another sign tells you differently, doesn't matter if the road is as straight as a die or has a RA mid section.
You'd be a fool to negotiate a RA at 60 though.........

We have some here you can lap at 70 on a motorbike... i think got pissed off in the end though as the one outside their offices is now the only one with a 40 limit on it

ETA:

There is one about a mile from me where you can enter at 30, NSL and 70 depending on which road you enter from!

Edited by BliarOut on Monday 6th September 16:14

[Mahoolah]

thanks for the replies. I have it in my head that it was 40mph unless otherwise stated, and can't for the life of me remember why I think this.

What happens when two approaching roads have different speed limits? I guess there will be sign posts indicating the correct limit before the roundabout.

[BliarOut]

Mahoolah said:

thanks for the replies. I have it in my head that it was 40mph unless otherwise stated, and can't for the life of me remember why I think this.

What happens when two approaching roads have different speed limits? I guess there will be sign posts indicating the correct limit before the roundabout.

Nope, the one mentioned above has many different speed limits depending on which road you came from.


Have fun with this badger boys, what is the speed limit if you approach from Fulbridge Road south, north or the A47?

http://maps.google.com/maps?cid=150550754293186006...

Edited by BliarOut on Monday 6th September 16:25

[thatone1967]

When I was a kid, I had a mate who had Granada 2.8i and took a roundabout at 90 if that helps...

[mrmr96]

BliarOut said:

ETA:

There is one about a mile from me where you can enter at 30, NSL and 70 depending on which road you enter from!

But surely there's change of limit signs on approach?

Near me there's:
1. A roundabout at the crossroads of a 30/40 mph limit and on approach from the 30mph road there's a 40 sign (and a 30mph sign on the way out the other side), and on approach from the 40mph there's no sign. Therefore it's a 40.

2. A roundabout at the crossroads of a 50mph limit/ NSL and on approach from the NSL road there's a 50 sign (and an NSL sign on the way out the other side), and on approach from the 50mph there's no sign. Therefore it's a 50.

I find it an interesting question as to what the limit on the roundabout would be where an NSL dual carriageway met an NSL single carriageway with no signs on either approach, however the one you're referreing to in the quote surely must have some signs on approach?

Edited by mrmr96 on Monday 6th September 16:58

[oldsoak]

thatone1967 said:

When I was a kid, I had a mate who had Granada 2.8i and took a roundabout at 90 if that helps...

When I was a kid I fell off a roundabout needing 6 stitches in a head wound...and that has about as much relevance to the topic at hand as your comment does.

[mrmr96]

Mahoolah said:

thanks for the replies. I have it in my head that it was 40mph unless otherwise stated, and can't for the life of me remember why I think this.

What happens when two approaching roads have different speed limits? I guess there will be sign posts indicating the correct limit before the roundabout.

This.

How long have you been driving by the way?

[rudecherub]

So basically coming from a dual carriage way onto an roundabout say A1 the speed limit is 70 mph, and it's left to our own devices to judge what speed we should use to go around, because we are smart, but on a straight clear stretch of the same kind of road, we are all evil and speed kills, and we are too dumb to decide whether it's safe to exceed the magic number.

[NorthernBoy]

rudecherub said:

So basically coming from a dual carriage way onto an roundabout say A1 the speed limit is 70 mph, and it's left to our own devices to judge what speed we should use to go around, because we are smart, but on a straight clear stretch of the same kind of road, we are all evil and speed kills, and we are too dumb to decide whether it's safe to exceed the magic number.

Er, no. You can go up to 70 on the straight bit, and up to 70 on the roundabout, if both have the same limit, and on both it's up to you to decide if you want to go at the limit, or if you want to go more slowly.

Why do you think that the roundabout is different to the straight bit in terms of your discretion?

[Dr Jekyll]

NorthernBoy said:

rudecherub said:

So basically coming from a dual carriage way onto an roundabout say A1 the speed limit is 70 mph, and it's left to our own devices to judge what speed we should use to go around, because we are smart, but on a straight clear stretch of the same kind of road, we are all evil and speed kills, and we are too dumb to decide whether it's safe to exceed the magic number.

Er, no. You can go up to 70 on the straight bit, and up to 70 on the roundabout, if both have the same limit, and on both it's up to you to decide if you want to go at the limit, or if you want to go more slowly.

Why do you think that the roundabout is different to the straight bit in terms of your discretion?

Presumably the point is that it isn't physically possible to do 70 round the roundabout so we have to use dicretion. The assumption of those in authority is that if there were no 70 limit on the motorway we would all drive flat out all the time.

So how do they think we manage to get round roundabouts?

[rudecherub]

NorthernBoy said:

rudecherub said:

So basically coming from a dual carriage way onto an roundabout say A1 the speed limit is 70 mph, and it's left to our own devices to judge what speed we should use to go around, because we are smart, but on a straight clear stretch of the same kind of road, we are all evil and speed kills, and we are too dumb to decide whether it's safe to exceed the magic number.

Er, no. You can go up to 70 on the straight bit, and up to 70 on the roundabout, if both have the same limit, and on both it's up to you to decide if you want to go at the limit, or if you want to go more slowly.

Why do you think that the roundabout is different to the straight bit in terms of your discretion?

Err I meant it's left to our own devices to judge what speed we should use to go around up to 70 mph,

so I was less clear than I intended

the point being 70mph is obviously too fast for most on an average roundabout, ie the powers that be are trusting the driver to make an informed judgement about what his ideal speed should be, ie much less than 70, in all probability, the same is true on many sections of A roads, which wind twist or bend, 60 mph would be too fast, add in adverse conditions, and again TPTB rely on driver smarts.

My point is that suddenly exceeding the magic number, in clearly good conditions - be it 60 or 70 NSL makes us offenders, yet the same brain is able to judge the speed around the roundabout or similar hazard, you are legal at 70 on the straight and 70 on the roundabout, which to me demonstrates how stupid the current legal framework is.

[SDxsi]

It is actually quite a good point raised, ask von what he thinks about it and there will be your reply from the government too

[Liquid Knight]

Back in my 125 days I used a local roundabout to practice getting my knee down. It intersected the A47 and A17 and all the roads leading to it were national speed limit. I was told off by a friendly officer who suggested there should be a speed limit on roundabouts but as their wasn't I should drive to a speed that's safe to the road conditions instead. The argument being if you need to put your knee down on a public road you're going too fast if anything happens ahead of you. Fair enough and to this day (thirteen years later) I have only put my knee down on a public road a few times.

60mph is too fast for cars trying to enter the roundabout to have enough time to pull out safely and also at 60mph a lot of the cars weight is transfered to the outside wheels so if you need to brake chances are you'll understeer or spin anyway.