Left turn at roundabout.

[sigma]

The approach to an island has two lanes. The left hand lane is for left turn and straight on, the right hand lane is for turning right. If there is a substantial queue in the left hand lane and you wish to turn left, is it permissible to approach the island in the right hand lane, complete a circuit of the island and leave at the desired exit.

[Ethel]

Well it would be hard to prove that you simply took a wrong turn - if you miss your exit the only safe option is to continue round the island

[Cockney_si]

Surely if the exit was blocked by a 'substantial queue' then it would still be blocked once you've been once around the roundabout and also you'd be blocking the roundabout for other traffic coming along in the right hand lane, regardless of them giving way to you or not.

[Davethedog]

Yes no if no buts the answer is yes.

[Ethel]

Cockney - the entrance lane may be blocked with queueing traffic, but the roundabout should still be moving and the required exit free.

You see this sort of thing a lot in rush hour traffic when the majority do not wish to take the right hand exit.

[fredpuli47]

Don't try it when the drivers in the left hand lane can see what you're doing.You might not live long ! Must say that, in 'emergencies', or when in the 'wrong lane' by mistake, I've done this on big roundabouts. What offence, if any, is it?. The likeliest is that of driving without reasonable consideration for other road users. That covers acts such as misusing an inside lane or driving through a parking area in front of shops,to jump a queue, and this behaviour seems the same.It's being inconsiderate to other drivers.The offence has the same penalty points as careless driving.

[Toureman]

I have been doing that for years, Many years ago I was a driving instructor in the armed services, at the start of the course we drove trainees from Portsmouth to Hayling Island to a deserted army barracks so they could have their first drive in safety.

The First roundabout we came to always had a slow moving long Que in the left lane so we used the right lane, about 12 of us in 3 ton army trucks, though not all of us together, used the right lane and went round so the traffic in the correct lane to turn left give had to way to us, a couple of weeks after we started doing this some drivers complained to the police about it, the police got in touch with us, they said we were of course doing nothing illegal but would we please stop doing it as we were upesting other drivers.

So we did.

[R1Geezer]

Yes nowt wrong with that, I do it all the time, bu66er, the secrets out. The beauty of it is cockney that those in the left hand lane have to give way to those on the roundabout.

[R1Geezer]

This one is another cracker, near me. I'm talking about the turning going down out of the picture. At busy time the left hand lane is chocker. However the right hand lane is empty and as it's a DC you can take the right hand lane and turn left into the right hand side of the DC. tada!

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

[R1Geezer]

looks like the link is screwed up, sorry!

[Cockney_si]

Ah yes, this is a tricky one but remember that roundabouts are designed to keep the traffic flowing but......

In heavy traffic situations the give way to the right rule is often ignored or forgotten by some drivers and there is either one mad rush or eveything grinds to a halt.

[Cockney_si]

What I'm basically getting at here is that although it's a system used to keep traffic flowing it doesn't work when traffic is not flowing.

[ebuzz1964]

ethel u said shoud be moving.. doesnt mean it was