When I was 16 years old, fresh out of driver’s education, license in hand, and ready to hit the roads, the town next to mine (good ole Hyde Park for all the Vermonters reading this) recently constructed a roundabout. You better believe that got a lot of attention from the community as well as surrounding ones since everyone used Route 15 to get to Morrisville for whatever shopping they needed. Nothing that exciting ever happened in that part of Vermont.
The roundabout, however, was difficult for people to master. Some thought you went straight through the median but then discovered there was curbing, some thought you put your directional on to enter the roundabout, so on and so forth. All of this confusion was creating an abundance of unnecessary accidents. The increase in accidents caught the Lamoille County Sheriff Department’s eye so they wrote a public service announcement and put it in the local paper on how to drive in a roundabout. The one thing people did know how to do was DRIVE SLOW. That decreased the potential for any fatalities or severe injuries one can receive from a roundabout.
I think it’s about time that article resurfaces. From all the travelling I have done, across the nation, it has come to my attention that there seems to be an epidemic at the lack of information people have in regards to roundabouts and how to drive them. I am not much of a road rage kind of driver but I cannot handle seeing one more person put their directional on to turn into a roundabout when we are all turning the SAME direction. It’s one thing if you do that and then exit the roundabout on that first turn out but please do that only at that time. Don’t drive around with it on while you’re in the roundabout because then no one will know when you are trying to turn out of it. If we could all agree on two things then maybe just maybe it’ll go smoother. First, only use your directional to signal OUT of the roundabout, but do it in a timely manner, please. Second, drive on the pavement and NOT the median, unless you are in a tractor trailer, then by all means use what you need!
There you have it folks-two rules to roundabouts. Please use them not only for the safety of yourself and others while driving but also if you get caught by the police there is a hefty fine not to mention (in Lamoille county at least) you can get points on your license and no one wants that, right? But if you don’t want to make my suggestion then please read the following from the Lamoille County Sheriff’s: http://www.newsandcitizen.com/news-and-citizen/lamoille-news/sheriffsdepartmentontheroundabout
