Illegal or just cheeky?

Illegal or just cheeky?

Author
Discussion

tyranical

Original Poster:

927 posts

191 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
Recently they have turned the roundabout outside my estate from your regular 2 lane roundabout with perfectly flowing traffic and minimal waiting time into a multiple lane "hamburger roundabout" monstrosity with about 20 sets of traffic lights and the most confusing layout ever which results in near gridlock congestion at multiple points throughout the day (hurrah for Chester City Council)

Before they did this I would come straight down the dual carriageway after work and turn into my road no problem however since then the congestion can often cause me to have to queue for 20 minutes or more just to turn into my road.

Anyway, generally the queueing is always in the left hand lane (the one I would have to wait in) but the right hand lane is clear, they have just painted yellow hatchings outside my turning so people leave a gap for people turning out into the right hand lane (sometimes), is there anything illegal when the lights are on red and traffic is stationary of me getting in the right hand lane and turning through the gap left by people in the left or is it just a bit cheeky?

If it's cheeky I don't really care but if it's illegal for some reason then I guess i'll have to queue.


SirSamuelBuca

1,353 posts

158 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
when that person pulls up to close the gap when they havent checked their mirror you will be at fault for the accident.

no idea if its legal or not but might not be worth the hassle

Urban Sports

11,321 posts

204 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
No idea if it's legal or not but I'd do it, just be aware that plenty of bell ends will stop blocking the road anyway even if there are markings.

tyranical

Original Poster:

927 posts

191 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
SirSamuelBuca said:
when that person pulls up to close the gap when they havent checked their mirror you will be at fault for the accident.

no idea if its legal or not but might not be worth the hassle
I had thought about this, the gap is pretty big though you could comfortably fit 2 cars through it side by side so on the few occassions I have done this already I have given a wide berth rather than cutting straight across the stationary cars bumper and if the lights are on red and traffic stationary then wouldn't expect someone to move anyway.

It is rather frustrating, even more frustrating is many drivers have turned my road into a rat run as it comes out a bit further down the road you get to by turning left at that roundabout, the amount of people that come flying down our 30mph doing stupid speeds is ridiculous, it has been reported by people and the police have been seen sitting on a corner in our road a number of times since.

It is a bit of a win/win regarding the possibility I may drive up the right hand lane and find noone has left a gap as it is quicker to go all the way round the roundabout and then in at the other end of our road than sitting in the traffic jam, not many people have worked this out though.

Edited by tyranical on Friday 3rd August 15:42

hms

164 posts

199 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
Take the right hand lane onto the round about, go around and exit where required!
h

mnkiboy

4,409 posts

167 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
One day you'll end up with a big dent in your passenger door doing that. Why not use the right hand lane and go right around the roundabout, unless this wouldn't save you much time?

Edit: Beaten to it.

JBM78

362 posts

181 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
The one near Sainsburys? It's a strange one alright.

tyranical

Original Poster:

927 posts

191 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
JBM78 said:
The one near Sainsburys? It's a strange one alright.
The very 1.. if you are coming from vicars cross lights my turning is just before the roundabout on the left.

Its been done to apparantly ensure the roundabout can cope with the extra traffic generated by the saighton camp housing development, it can't cope with the traffic now nevermind another 500 homes.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

246 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
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It's going to be changed again though.

tyranical

Original Poster:

927 posts

191 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
Is it?

If you mean the road works going on currently, all they are doing is repainting it and putting box sections in to try and stop people blocking it.. not going to make a difference.

kiethton

13,917 posts

181 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
hms said:
Take the right hand lane onto the round about, go around and exit where required!
h
This

TameRacingDriver

18,094 posts

273 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
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Thought the war on the motorist had ended? Silly me.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

246 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
tyranical said:
Is it?

If you mean the road works going on currently, all they are doing is repainting it and putting box sections in to try and stop people blocking it.. not going to make a difference.
You might be right - I thought the changes were more significant than that.

tyranical

Original Poster:

927 posts

191 months

Friday 3rd August 2012
quotequote all
Deva Link said:
You might be right - I thought the changes were more significant than that.
Sadly not.

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/loc...

IMO there is no way to make that thing work.. it is fundamentally broken and they need to start again from scratch, it coped perfectly fine with the traffic before they started messing about with it, all they needed to do was put an extra sliproad off the A55 up by saighton camp and that would have relieved the extra stress the new housing development would have put on the network instead of coming up with whatever that thing is.

Thankfully the council are using their brains and refusing the developers planning permission to build the rest of the homes at saighton camp until they are satisfied with that roundabout, I just hope that their satisfaction and the chester populations satisfaction are the same thing.