mini roundabouts by hawkwell driving school hockley

At a mini roundabout GIVE WAY to your RIGHT. This means anything that if it turns would hit your car in the driver’s door. So it includes a vehicle entering from the road to your right, a vehicle from straight ahead that is turning to its right, and even a vehicle from the left that is doing a U-turn. Anything that is in the roundabout before you, and on your right-hand side, you must give way to.

Remember also that give way does not mean “wait for”, it means “Don’t get in the way of”, which is completely different.

When to pull out ?

The best time to pull out on a busy roundabout is when the car that you have to give way to (on your right) hesitates because he has to give way to someone on his right. Look at the roundabout as a whole and try to predict when cars coming from straight ahead will cause the cars on your right to stop. The best time to go is usually as soon as the car on your right hesitates - if you wait too long then the crossing vehicle will have gone and the car on the right will move rapidly out behind it.

When you approach a mini roundabout do so at a speed that will enable you to deal with any situation that arises - maybe a car from the left that should give way but doesn’t, or a car from the right that isn’t indicating to turn but does anyway. If possible time your approach so that you don’t arrive at the roundabout at the same time as another vehicle that you may have to give way to.

When entering a busy mini roundabout you may have to be assertive to proceed. If you have to push your way in then use a two-stage technique. First of all move yourself carefully across the lane you have to give way to (your right) so that you are in the middle of the roundabout; then before proceeding any further make sure that traffic that has to give way to you (your left) is stopping for you.

The law regarding mini-roundabouts is often mis-understood the following should clarify the situation for you:

The Highway code says: “Mini-roundabouts- Approach these in the same way as normal roundabouts. All vehicles MUST pass around the central markings except large vehicles which are physically incapable of doing so.”

The Road Traffic Act (from Hughes Guide to Road Traffic Law) says:

“Mini-Roundabout - Vehicular traffic entering the junction must give priority to vehicles from the right at the give-way line, or, if that is not clearly visible, at the road junction AND proceed past the marking at the centre in the direction shown by the arrows unless the size of the vehicle or the layout of the junction makes it impractical to do so”

As you can see the Highway Code mis-states the Road Traffic Law and doesn’t make sense - because sometimes you have to go over a mini-roundabout, and you are not driving a large vehicle. The RTA takes precedence so:

The simplified rule is: “go around mini-roundabouts unless the size of the vehicle or the layout of the junction makes it impractical to do so.”

and to simplify it further and put it into practical terms:-

“go around mini-roundabouts unless you have moved out to the right-hand lane to turn right or you just can’t get around them (eg. Spa roundabout in Hockley)”

This is because once you have moved out to the right-hand lane other traffic will overtake you on your left. If you then try to move back to the left to go around the roundabout markings you will hit the vehicle on the left.

This applies particularly to two mini-roundabouts in Rochford, both are on test routes. These are the roundabout by the fire station as you turn into the town, and the roundabout by the railway bridge when you turn towards Ashingdon from the town. For both of these you will move out to the right-hand lane to turn right - you must then drive over the roundabout.