Double Lane Traffic Circle

dheshenp said:
so to sum it up. legally if you are on the inside lane, you must make sure its clear to exit and not assume it is. anyone has an official link?
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That's the problem, there is no specific legislation that covers double lane traffic circles. For this reason most "experts" revert back to the K53 rules of the road and leave the onus on the person in the inner lane to "do all the work".

but on the road, the problem arises when you enter at 12 and want to exit at 9 so u take the inner or right lane. then at your 6, a car enters the outer or left lane wanting to exit at 12(their 6). here both parties are correct and assuming u dont keep track of where every car enters.
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The inner lane car can exit wherever they like but, as per above, the onus is on them to ensure that it is clear to do so. As someone else mentioned, the person that goes all the way around the circle in the outside lane is a knob but the vagueness of the legislation means that he is within his rights to do so.

surely u cannot just exit directly from the right lane even if the exit is a double lane. i mean u cant just cut across a lane with moving traffic and say you was right.
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That's precisely the point. The problem is that with many traffic circles, specifically the ones in Umhlanga that my discussion revolved around, are such that the majority of the traffic heads straight across them (ie enter at 6, exit at 12 for both lanes), as this is the main flow of traffic. Very few cars leave at any other exit so you often get cars in the inner and outer lane both exiting at the same time into the two lanes of the exit. The problem is this assumption means that if one of those knobs in the outside lane decides to carry on around you get the incident like my mom had. As mentioned, he even apologised as it is generally accepted that you should not go around but there are no markings to the insurance argued....

Signs stating you cannot exit at 3 if you enter at 6 would be the easiest solution. They may not prevent accidents as people disobey them but then at least the person doing the right thing would have a case against the guilty party's insurers.

Bottom line, in my opinion, is that all cars in a traffic circle should be aware of all other cars around them and assume the worst. Trouble is when two people make assumptions you have accidents happening.

COMPUTEK said:
+1
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Read the entire discussion. It is great when they have arrows and pretty little pictures telling you what to do but if they don't then the legislation is vague and does not cover it, so the generally accepted rule by insurers and traffic authorities is that you need to obey the basic rules of the road re "changing lanes".

EDIT: You do need to love the fact that in that image the first arrow on the right shows turning right or straight but the next one shows straight only.... :)
 
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Ah, it was obscured by the shadow. EDIT : Geez, you guys get seriously thrilled about showing images :) I based my comment on the one image shared. I'm not going to spend hours on Google Earth proving or disproving a mute point!

Seeing as though we are sharing screenshots, here is an example of the one from my discussion without any markings. Note, for good measure, how the blue/silver car and white car are exiting at the same exit from both the inner and outer lane on the right of the picture. This is the accepted norm as most of the traffic flow is straight across. However, if the white car had decided to continue around and hit the BMW, the latter would have been liable.... or so we discovered!

Clipboard01.jpg
 
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ClintZA said:
Some of these explanations are wrong according to the law. My mother had an accident in a two lane traffic circle and we did research as the insurance would not pay.

The lane you are in does not at all define your entry and exit point. It is up to the person on the inside lane to ensure it is clear for them to exit the circle at all times. If it is not clear to exit they need to continue around the circle until it is! They are also meant to go through the routine of checking mirrors and indicating as they are effectively changing lanes, or at least crossing over a lane, when exiting the circle.

The person in the outside lane is also fully entitled to carry on around the circle, which is what happened in my mom's case.
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Fair enough but how about teaching some of your Durban/Umhlanga drivers not to just enter the circle one after the other. Common courtesy dictates one at a time not a whole swarm of vehicles travelling in the same direction just entering one after the other.

I hope you mean the other guys insurance wouldn't pay because even if your mother was at fault your insurance company should pay, unless you insured with one of those thieving direct insurance companies like Dial Direct, Budget Insurance, Auto & General, First for Women (All the same company)
 
Boris Becker said:
Fair enough but how about teaching some of your Durban/Umhlanga drivers not to just enter the circle one after the other. Common courtesy dictates one at a time not a whole swarm of vehicles travelling in the same direction just entering one after the other.

I hope you mean the other guys insurance wouldn't pay because even if your mother was at fault your insurance company should pay, unless you insured with one of those thieving direct insurance companies like Dial Direct, Budget Insurance, Auto & General, First for Women (All the same company)
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The herd / swarm mentality holds strong in durbs, especially with traffic lights that are out of order.
 
If there are no cars in the circle to your right then you are fully entitled to enter one after another. Not really sure I am understand the issue. It's not a four way stop, it's a traffic circle.
Although courtesy does dictate that if it is particularly busy you let those at entry points further along ease in, and I have seen Durbanites doing this all the time.
 
That is true, but people that are at the next entry point won't get a chance to enter if there is a steady stream of vehicles entering ;)
 
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