# How do you signal in a roundabout? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921 "2008-09-17T00:58:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/41 "2008-09-17T17:49:07Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I don’t know how it is everywhere, but in California you don’t have to signal if you’re in a lane that only has one direction you can go. If you’re in a left turn only lane, you don’t have to signal that turn. > > To me, roundabouts really aren’t that different than entering a freeway. There’s only one way you can go and you don’t have to signal until you intend to leave the entrance lane and merge onto the freeway, which is usually a left lane change, even though your vehicle is generally angling right. You’re signaling which lane you intend to occupy. > [@](#): > > Use turn signals as follows > > ``` > * When turning right or exiting at the first exit around the roundabout, turn on your right-turn signal on the approach. > * When going straight ahead (i.e., exiting halfway around the roundabout), do not use any turn signals on approach. > * When turning left or making a U-turn (i.e., exiting more than halfway around the roundabout), turn on your left turn signal and continue to use your left-turn signal until you have passed the exit before the one you want, and then use your right-turn signal through your exit. > > ``` [http://www.city.davis.ca.us/pw/traffic/roundabouts.cfm](http://www.city.davis.ca.us/pw/traffic/roundabouts.cfm) but see, > [@](#): > > When you approach a roundabout: > > ``` > * Slow down as you approach the intersection. > * Yield to pedestrians and bicyclists crossing the roadway. > * Watch for signs and pavement markings that guide you or prohibit certain movements. > * Enter the roundabout when there is a big enough gap in traffic. > * Drive in a counterclockwise direction. Do not stop or pass other vehicles. > * Use your turn signals when you change lanes or exit the roundabout. > * If you miss your exit, continue around until you return to your exit. > > ``` [http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/right\_of\_way.htm#roundabout](http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/right_of_way.htm#roundabout) ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/42 "2008-09-17T18:31:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > New Englanders don’t signal at any other tims. Why would they start doing so at rotaries? > From what I’ve seen, Bostonians don’t know what the rules for driving in a rotary are, amnd don’t seem to care particularly. Thinking about appropriate signalling in one would be the farthest thing from their minds. Even if they did signal, would you trust it enough to act upon it? For example, the driver coming towards you signals a right turn in front of you, would you really join the roadway, assuming they will actually turn right? When I was learning to drive, I did trust the oncoming signal, and nearly got hit for my troubles. I’ve not trusted a signal since… though I do use them. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/43 "2008-09-17T19:09:24Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > for somebody who does not know where you entered the roundabout, your signal usually makes no sense, since it depends on the point of entry. Following the British system, it makes perfect sense. The signal given approaching the roundabout shows one’s final destination. When in the roundabout, signalling left shows an intention to leave at the next exit, signalling right shows an intention to continue around the circle. When going straight across, you enter without signalling, but on passing the first exit you start signalling left. At any point in time, all cars should be showing a clear indication of where they’re going next. > [@OtakuLoki](#): > > **Merkwurdigliebe** , I think you’re missing something on the map. Here’s a link to the [Concord Rotary](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=42.467222,-71.397507&spn=0.003324,0.010986&z=17) - which is the younger, more docile, idiot step-brother of the madness that was [Fresh Pond Circle](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=42.388314,-71.143352&spn=0.003328,0.010986&z=17). I think you’ll agree these are precisely what you’re talking about. 100m diameter? That’s not a roundabout. It doesn’t slow the traffic negotiating it, removing a major safety element of proper roundabouts. It creates multiple manoeuveres for each car rather than one, complicating the whole thing and making it less efficient. (We do have circular systems at multiple-level junctions between major roads in Britain, but nobody will talk of them as being roundabouts.) ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/44 "2008-09-18T00:58:18Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am dead serious when I say that New York City is a breeze compared to Boston driving. I have driven both and there is no comparison between the two. After living in the Boston area for 10 years, I navigated Manhattan without a map in an SUV and it was stress free. Manhattan roads are built on a grid for god’s sake. > > Boston has so many traffic and road oddities that it will blow your mind. Have you ever heard of an invisible left turn signal? I doubt it but we have them here. I have had many visitors so visibly shaken up by driving from Boston Logan to our house that I insist that they fly into Providence, RI or Manchester, NH now. > > Boston has its own driving style which is an abomination. You have to physically block cars with your own and pray that the others will stop. Another bonus is that Boston allows cars to drive in the breakdown lane during rush hour. God forbid if you are truly broken down or if you make a legitimate exit onto another road. The body count builds. Do Bostonites still find driving there madness? I lived in Cambridge and used to drive tons of places, both in and around the city, and the only place I actively disliked being was the business district (is that what it’s called? 1 year out and the names are escaping me-- the section next to Chinatown and 4 point channel) and that was just because of the stupid one way streets. I avoided rush hour like the plague, but it doesn’t mean I only drove when there was no one on the streets. And this includes navigating Fenway traffic, Park Street, rotaries (although Fresh Pond is a bit stupid), and East Boston. FWIW, I think the worst intersection in Boston is that one in East Boston where roads come in from maybe 6 or so directions and it’s kind of a rotary but kind of not and there may or may not be one light there. Anyway, when I first got there I hated it, but within months it honestly never stressed me or made me feel unsafe. I actually think Boston drivers for the most part are fairly good drivers. Aggressive, to be sure, but not actually doing stupid things for the most part. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/45 "2008-09-18T01:05:40Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am dead serious when I say that New York City is a breeze compared to Boston driving. I have driven both and there is no comparison between the two. After living in the Boston area for 10 years, I navigated Manhattan without a map in an SUV and it was stress free. Manhattan roads are built on a grid for god’s sake. > > Boston has so many traffic and road oddities that it will blow your mind. Have you ever heard of an invisible left turn signal? I doubt it but we have them here. I have had many visitors so visibly shaken up by driving from Boston Logan to our house that I insist that they fly into Providence, RI or Manchester, NH now. > > Boston has its own driving style which is an abomination. You have to physically block cars with your own and pray that the others will stop. Another bonus is that Boston allows cars to drive in the breakdown lane during rush hour. God forbid if you are truly broken down or if you make a legitimate exit onto another road. The body count builds. Do people who live in Boston still find driving there madness? I found that after learning the city, knowing exactly where I wanted to go made driving there really stress-free. And I used to drive everywhere, in and around the city-- I had a tutoring job where we went to individual houses. A few of the intersections and rotaries are set up with el grande doses of stupid, but the ones that are only kind of stupid start to make a kind of sense after a bit. Plus, maybe I’m the only one, but I actually rarely had a problem with the other drivers. They’re aggressive, to be sure, but they didn’t usually do things that were stupid. Like I mentioned upthread, I think Worcester had more than its share of stupid drivers, and would much rather navigate Boston in a moving van than drive in Worcester. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/46 "2008-09-18T01:53:05Z")
> [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](#): > > Yup, them be roundabouts as far as I can see. What’s this talk of a roundabout that you can go through the middle of!ETA Oh, and please call me Petros. Don’t know why I chose such an annoyingly long-to-type username. **Petros** : Here’s one that you can drive straight through. It’s in Revere, Massachusetts. It may be the one that other posters have thought was in East Boston which is just south of Revere. It was called Bell Circle because there was a large Olds dealership at one o’clock, Bell Olds. I think it has a different name now but I haven’t been thru it in about 9 years but do have a brother that lived on the east side of it and now lives 2 miles west of it. (TMI, perhaps).I got wiped out twice in the circle in the 13 years I commuted thru it between Boston and Marblehead (10 miles northeast of here). Inbound to Boston I entered form 2 o’clock on the dial and left at 6 o’clock, by either turning 90 degrees to the left at the top of the circle, or continuing around 3/4 of the way around it and merging with the straight thru southbound traffic, depending on the signal phasing. Yes it was all signalized. It didn’t used to be, before they built the cut thru. [Google Maps](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.409065,-71.001527&spn=0.003533,0.004807&t=h&z=17) . Here’s a larger map/photo showing (I hope) two other nearby rotaries, all in Revere. The Wonderland dog racing track is at the northesterly one, and it shows the alternate commuting modeal route, the “T” blue line trackage next to Revere Beach. I used that often but could drive into the city more quickly than taking the subway. [Google Maps](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.415695,-70.998673&spn=0.014131,0.019226&t=h&z=15) (Seen in editing that the board removed all my interline and interparagraph spacings) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/47 "2008-09-18T01:58:01Z")
> [@Ignatz](#): > > […Yes it was all signalized. It didn’t used to be, before they built the cut thru. … In other words, it’s becaome a signalled junction, which just happens to have a circular layout. It may have been a rotary or even a roundabout, but isn’t any longer! ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921/48 "2008-09-18T02:23:42Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > In other words, it’s becaome a signalled junction, which just happens to have a circular layout. It may have been a rotary or even a roundabout, but isn’t any longer! I have no argument. Just addressing **Petros** ’ query about such animals. There were plans to underpass it with a northnorthwesterly extension of an Interstate spur from Logan Airport to connect with I-95 in the Lynn/Saugus Marsh just north of here and then on to connect with the radial section of I-95 at Route 128 in Peabody but environmental concerns and public outcry helped kill that proposal. According to \*Engineering News-Record \*in 1964 the Mass. Turnpike Authority had (and probably still has) plans to build that as a toll road. Their Big Dig/Ted Williams Tunnel now forms a perfect link to it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-signal-in-a-roundabout/463921.md?page=2)