"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
You still get gridlocked roundabouts in the UK if one of the exits gets
blocked further down the road and people queue across the entry so other
traffic is blocked from going in a direction other than the one that is
tailing back. But it's much less common than in countries which give
priority to traffic joining over traffic on the roundabout.

We arent allowed to enter a roundabout if it isnt possible to get
thru it. That avoids gridlocked roundabouts and works very well.

That sounds like a good idea. I presume it works better for mini roundabouts
where you can see across the centre painted/raised circle to the exit on the
far side; it must be more difficult if it's a full size roundabout where
there is a large raised mound in the centre (*) which obscures your view of
whether the traffic is queued back on the far side.

Does it have the same problem that box junctions have, that if you are going
straight on, you find that as soon as a space becomes available, a car on
your left that is turning left takes the space because they are closer to it
and can reach it sooner? I was once stopped by the police for stopping on a
box junction, but the police believed me when I said that I set off as soon
as a space became available, but when I was half-way across the box, a car
on my left "stole" the gap that I had been aiming for.

What we tend to have in the UK on some very busy roundabouts are box zones
on the roundabout itself at each entry point, so you are allowed to enter,
but are not allowed to queue across the exit, preventing someone else
entering the roundabout. That works well - as long as people honour the box,
of course, which is always a problem.

Australia doesnt and I dont believe that NZ does either.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/r...ive-way-rules/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...road-rule.html
is the closest I can find to a description of what *used* to be the case
until 2012. A car which is on a major road and is turning left had to give
way to an oncoming car that was turning right into the same road. That
certainly sounds counter-intuitive. It's not quite what I *thought* the rule
was - I thought even a car that was going straight on along the major road
had to give way to the oncoming car that was turning right across its path,
but I probably misunderstood. ;-) I can see why they used to have that
rule - to minimise how long the oncoming car has to wait in the centre of
the road before it can turn - but it sounds scary if you aren't expecting
it. I bet there was utter confusion for a few days after it, as people
forgot that the rule no longer applied...


(*) In the UK, some roundabouts in rural areas have sculptures on the
central grassy circle to brighten the place up a bit - there's one near me
that has a shepherd and sheep dog tending a flock of a few sheep (all
artificial) which is slightly unnerving when you first see it ;-)
https://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co....bout-1-3261803