You and your wife decided that since it was a beautiful day, you’d take a ride over to Portsmouth. You haven’t been there in quite a while so you decide to follow the directions from Mapquest, not realizing they took you through a roundabout. You tend to get a little confused when it comes to roundabouts, but you figure that you can just follow the driver in front of you through it without much difficulty.
After about five minutes, you make it to Bart St., headed straight for the dreaded roundabout. You stay close to the car in front of you as you approach the circle. He quickly enters the outer circle and you punch your gas to stick with him, not noticing that there was a car coming around the bend. You managed to narrowly avoid him so you continue following the other car, until he breaks away from you and takes the first exit. You know your exit is the third, so you start to panic. Fearing that you’re in the wrong lane, you quickly move over (cutting off another person behind you) and then finally seeing your exit, you veer to the right and exit onto Crawford.
You’re a little flustered but you made it out. Suddenly you look in your rearview mirror and you see red and blue lights flashing. What did you do wrong?
Common Ticket-worthy Roundabout Mistakes
Ignoring posted signs and road markings, can not only make navigating a roundabout tricky, but it can also land you a driving citation. Avoid these three common mistakes to prevent a police pull-over:
- Entering a roundabout without yielding to oncoming traffic. Yield signs are clearly posted to help prevent collisions. If you ignore them, you’re not only putting yourself at risk for injury, but you could potentially disrupt the entire continuity of the circle, causing a massive traffic jam or multi-car collision.
- Crossing a lane of traffic to get to your exit. Lane markings are clearly indicated before roundabouts to make sure you enter in the correct lane. Follow the signs so you don’t confuse other motorists, disrupt the flow of traffic, or cause potentially dangerous crossovers when changing lanes.
- Stopping in the middle of a roundabout for no apparent reason. Not only does this increase your chance of a rear-end collision, but it also disrupts traffic flow and may cause a pile-up.
Any one of these roundabout violations, in addition to any normal moving violations that you may perform within a roundabout—such as speeding, swerving, etc.—could potentially cause you to be cited, ticketed, or pulled over for reckless driving. Don’t risk a ticket by ignoring the rules. Follow the signs and be attentive so you can avoid a police encounter and keep yourself from being hurt.
Do you have more questions about roundabout driving or traffic violations? Contact us today for more information or to see how we can help you with your citations.
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