Wrong lane driver nearly flattens me.

[gambatte]

OK, I'm a relative local. I've driven this stretch loads of times, infact one of my old jobs was driving round Donny. IMO BP started the vid too late, you nearly miss the first signs on the floor. There's plenty of lane markings early on to let drivers know what lane they should be in. It's not really that bad a roundabout, just big. Its a doddle to negotiate.
What we had was an unobservant driver who was in the wrong lane and proved how observant they were with their subsequent manouvering.

 

[400bhp]

They're not 'give way' lines. There is nothing to 'give way' to, it's a broken line to allow access into the bus lane. There is a solid white line on the right of the bus lane (solid white lines shouldn't be crossed, and it's there, I assume to make sure that all traffic entering the bus lane must do so form the left to prevent buses side swiping) The solid line 'protects' the bus/cyclist from traffic on the right. And the Astras lane clearly states straight on/right only.


That said, I'm always very wary on this section, and fortunately I was on the ball enough to allow for the drivers incompetence.

You'r being very harsh.

You questioned my belief that (based on your video) it looks a tricky roundabout, more so for the uninitiated.

I suspect if you stood next to the roundabout for 15 minutes at a busy time you would see several near misses.

It's not drivers incompetence, it's a poorly designed roundabout.

 

[PK99]

I've had a helmet cam for a few months now, and since becoming a recumbent cyclist I've had far far fewer occasions such as this one where a driver's failed to see me. The road couldn't be more clearly marked (3 separate lane marking arrows on the approach to the roundabout) I was about to take evasive action and swerve left myself, but saw that he'd seen me at the last second. I suspect he'd had one of those last minute mind change driving moments.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5D2n1u6Or4


BTW, today was my first day with the additional rear facing cam....can anyone recommend a decent (easy to use, and preferably free) vid editor for doing picture in picture?

As i read the video posted,
Astra man is continuing in a a lane without crossing a line of any form.
Cyclist is crossing a line into a different lane

 

[the snail]

As i read the video posted,
Astra man is continuing in a a lane without crossing a line of any form.
Cyclist is crossing a line into a different lane

Yeah, I can't see that the driver did anything wrong there, the OP went straight across the 'give way' markings and cut in front of the car. I think the OP should take the reg. no. off the video and submit to 'silly cyclists'

 

[marinyork]

It's not drivers incompetence, it's a poorly designed roundabout.

Designs and the rules are meant to encourage particular behaviours and discourage others. You could redesign that roundabout to take take a harsher view of the driver's behaviour and stop them doing it completely . You could even argue that that makes it a poor design! On the other hand if you believe that drivers may get confused you design it like, I don't know what... that. And what should drivers do when executing moves like that having been allowed to do so? Be careful. Don't think it is much to ask. It's not a horrendous manoeuvre, but having got mixed up they really should have been more careful. Overtaking and then trying to cut in on a cyclist on a roundabout is not a great idea.

The people on here seem to have been misled from the footage. If you walked along that roundabout you would see what they have intended.

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

As the Fresh Prince once said to Uncle Phil..."you brought this on yourselllppphhhh"

Don't overtake cars on the inside, on a roundabout. Regardless of lane priority, it's never a good idea.

 

[BentMikey]

You got a flag, you loser!!!!

 

[marinyork]

Yeah, I can't see that the driver did anything wrong there, the OP went straight across the 'give way' markings and cut in front of the car. I think the OP should take the reg. no. off the video and submit to 'silly cyclists'

If you're going to talk about give way markings at least be consistent. The driver also crosses the give way markings. The markings are there to mostly tell people to give way to their right. It is a complete work of fiction that the driver stays in the same 'lane' and the cyclist must give way to him. The driver doesn't at all, they switch virtual lanes, overtake and cut in. If it was the driver's lane they would have marked it as their lane. As there is a give way sign for them too it's a bit of a clue that it isn't their lane!

If we redrew this instead of a roundabout as a T junction (or a cross junction) with 2 lanes before the give way markings - one to turn right and one to turn left with lanes clearly marked, nobody here would bizarrely be arguing that if someone in the turn right lane decided to turn left (despite being in the wrong lane) and cut across that they'd suddenly have priority as it was their lane and the person turning left should be giving way to them. They'd say they were total numpties and that they should wait until the other traffic had safely exited as it was their mistake.

 

[mr_hippo]

I have watched the video a few times - another non-incident

 

[MrJamie]

The first time i watched it paying attention to the bus lane not the arrow in lane 3, i thought the car had taken the correct route to turn left and that the roundabout was stupid. Having rewatched it its obvious the car turned left from the straight-ahead lane, but the roundabout is still a bit stupid.

Presumably car drivers need to choose lane 1,3,4 and bus drivers need to choose lanes 1,2 or 4. Surely it would be a lot easier to phase out the end of the bus lane 100m before the junction and just remove lane 2, so you have the normal 3 lanes to choose from with the left turn still needing no give way?

 

[Ian Cooper]

Those intersections and bus lanes are too dangerous, in my opinion, to be useful for cyclists. Buses can muscle their way through and will come out on the 'alive' side of any conflict. Cyclists are always taking a large risk going through such a nasty junction. If I were cycling that, I'd avoid the bus lane and take the general traffic lane through there (getting out of that left turn lane as soon as I could) - it's much simpler and drivers will know instantly what your intentions are. Merging right into those bus lanes from the left turn lane, it's just asking for trouble, because what you must do in order to get where you're going ends up going against what the road markings say you're doing. This is going to confuse every driver who sees it.

I know the road markings say you 'can' do what you did, even though technically you're cutting across a lane of traffic. Really that point at which you had the conflict should have a triangular give way marking, making you give way to that lane of traffic - but it doesn't. But I wouldn't take that route if you paid me a million dollars. Well, okay, maybe a million (a million can pay for a lot of surgery and physical therapy, and could give my surviving relatives a nice nest-egg if I got killed), but I'd refuse a few thousand for sure.

 

[gambatte]

I would say "check out streetview, and see how the signage and roadmarkings make it obvious what lane you should be in" Unfortunately the google streetcar went down when they'd raked off the road surface...........

 

[Hip Priest]

The driver seemed to balls-up the roundabout, but in their defence, they did seem to be aware of your presence and slowed accordingly.

 

[Boris Bajic]

An interesting watch, but no incident there. I can see why it was posted, but I'd be inclined to remove the reg from the post. The driver forgot to indicate but isn't a sinner.

That the driver wasn't indicating was an error.

The cyclist (OP) drew up level with the car from behind (on the nearside) and appeared not to allow for the fact that one choice open to the car in that lane was to take the first exit. that may have been an error.

A lot of safety is based on observation and anticipation. The OP appeared to enter the roundabout unaware that the driver might take the first exit despite not indicating.

Both the OP and the driver did well to avoid one another on the junction, but that is pretty close to a mimimum expectation in today's traffic.

I find some helmetcammery to be silly, self-congratulatory or worse. This piece was an interesting view and the debate was largely thoughtful and informed.

Thanks for posting it.

 

[400bhp]

Designs and the rules are meant to encourage particular behaviours and discourage others. You could redesign that roundabout to take take a harsher view of the driver's behaviour and stop them doing it completely . You could even argue that that makes it a poor design! On the other hand if you believe that drivers may get confused you design it like, I don't know what... that. And what should drivers do when executing moves like that having been allowed to do so? Be careful. Don't think it is much to ask. It's not a horrendous manoeuvre, but having got mixed up they really should have been more careful. Overtaking and then trying to cut in on a cyclist on a roundabout is not a great idea.

The people on here seem to have been misled from the footage. If you walked along that roundabout you would see what they have intended.

I'm sure you're right-I guess it underlies the point that even with a camera, situations can be misconstrued.