Oh but this might just be a red herring; yet another issue that's neither right nor wrong but quite gray (and annoying)—just like speeding. Almost everybody does it where I live even though it's illegal but focusing on it misses the bigger picture.
Speeding? Oh, how I miss those days. You're lucky that people still do it round your way. I remember the good old days where people would routinely drive at 60mph in a 40 zone, which felt great and one got there much quicker, too.
However, with the imposition of ever more 20mph zones all over the place nowadays along with widespread speedtraps waiting to catch you out, people have slowed down dramatically, to the point where it's infuriating, inciting road rage and I'm not just talking about people driving at the speed limit, no, they drive
well under it!
I'm talking of speeds like 20 in a 30, and even 25 in a 40, yes seriously.
The speed limit on motorways in the UK is 70. The other day, I was going up the ramp to join one, where two cars were infuriatingly doing a leisurely 40 up it, refusing to accelerate and I couldn't get past them. When they eventually did get onto the 4 lane motorway, they not only maintained that speed, but got into lane 2 as well!
I mean, wtf?! They were clearly in a convoy, but what possessed them to drive like that? At the most, just stay in lane 1 if you're going to drive so slowly. I kept looking at them in my rearview mirror to see if they'd eventually move over, but they didn't before I lost sight of them.
The idiot drivers in these examples think that they're being "safe" by driving at such slow speeds, but they're actually considered a hazard, even by the police and could be stopped.
This behaviour really winds me up. I love driving and 30 odd years ago I used to really enjoy it, but with the imposition of all these anti-car measures, speedtraps and now super slow drivers everywhere, it's sucked the life right out of it so it simply feels like a chore every time now.
I would argue that if a roundabout is busy enough that a queue forms, it has outgrown its usefulness and is no better than a four-way stop. Maybe a stoplight is needed, or more roads...
Hmmm... I'm not quite with you on that one. While traffic levels can increase to the point where any particular road junction becomes saturated, roundabouts have been proven to be more efficient than a 4-way junction. I'm no road planner, but perhaps in those instances, the roundabouts need to be made bigger and have more lanes to cope with the volume? Traffic lights will always put significant bottlenecks in, so should be avoided wherever possible. For example, there's a funny shaped roundabout near me with 4 exits which has traffic lights on it at only one approach to it, to help the traffic flow, rather than one at all the approaches.
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