Hey Culpeper! Today, the first of three new roundabouts will be opened and ready for public use. To help clear up any uncertainties about how the circles are to be used, here are several helpful tips, both common sense and legally binding ones: 1) Go slow within the circle. There will be speed limits posted, but do not feel pressured to match them if you are not comfortable doing so. 2) ALWAYS go Right within the circle; no vehicle drives clockwise around a traffic circle(in America, anyway!); even if you are making a left hand exit, you must drive counterclockwise around the circle until you reach said exit. 3) Remember to use your blinkers as normal within the circle: right blinker to exit right, left blinker to exit left, no blinker to exit straight across. 4) Right of way is ALWAYS granted to those already within the circle. Hence, if you can not enter the circle without cutting off someone already coming around, you must wait. When entering a roundabout, you need only worry about traffic coming from your left(if the circle is being used correctly!) However, if there is no one to contend with, then you are not legally obliged to stop, as you would at a normal four way intersection. This is why traffic circles are up to 20% more efficient at moving traffic along, because they eliminate the element of halting your vehicle unnecessarily. (Source: Mythbusters!) 5) In a two lane circle, do not drive alongside bigger vehicles, such as tractor trailers(or fire trucks!) These vehicles need more room to maneuver and will often stick out into the neighboring lane as they make their turns. Play it safe and give them space. 6) Never stop when you are within the traffic circle. If you miss your exit, you are perfectly within your rights to make a complete trip around until you come to your exit again. 6) Finally, when it comes to letting your friendly neighborhood firefighters through the circle in the case of an emergency, it takes cooperation from everyone to help us get through quickly. Those not already within the circle, and not in front of us on the same entrance road, should obviously wait to enter the circle after we have passed through. Those already in the circle and ahead of us should make their way as quickly(BUT SAFELY)as legally possible to their exit road and then find a place to pull aside. There is limited room within a roundabout, and although your natural(and usually correct) instinct is to pull aside immediately, we will have a much easier time getting through the intersection if we have it to ourselves. And thats all there is to it. Drive safe Culpeper!
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 12:22:47 +0000
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