About what year was this?
I expect there was a lot of hostility to them at the time, especially from older drivers. Is that still the case today?
I don’t know @Schnitte’s memory, but I got my German drivers license in 1986 when roundabouts were almost unknown here. I first encountered many of them on a car holiday to South France in 1989 and found them great. I don’t remember exactly, but around the early/middle 90s, more and more crossings in Germany were turned into roundabouts, and now they’re ubiquitous. Although we’re a car nation like the US, I don’t remember any opposition even by old drivers, and the change went smoothly, without any public info campaigns necessary AFAIR. My father was around 60 when it happened and I never heard a word of him against roundabouts. Now he’s 90 and still driving.
No.
It is also visible to the vehicles in the roundabout, so actually to all the cars affected.
If you are just zipping around to the first exit on a two lane roundabout it tells the cars behind or in the roundabout that if there is a car in the roundabouts centre lane you may be clear to enter and exit beside them.
If you are taking the second or third exit then it indicates to the car behind that you need a bigger gap before entering and to cars in the roundabout that you will be crossing in front of them.
How could, in any driving situation, can “telling” other drivers in near proximity of what you are intending to do be dumb?
I got my licence in 2001. I didn’t hear much opposition from older drivers against roundabouts, but I do remember by parents discussing how to navigate one with friends.
Forr lack of a better word, the professionalism of German drivers continues to amaze.
Conversly, eyes closed, cussed hostility to everything, and me first, are the three touchstones of US driving.
But my “third exit” may be the car behind me’s “first exit” or “second exit”. Unless I’m missing something, that’s completely useless information.
You’re saying if I’m going to cut across in front of someone to take an exit on the right, using my left turn signal is going to provide them useful information? I would disagree - and I’ve been through more roundabouts in the last month than most people in this thread have gone through in their life.
Well being Australian and left hand side drivers any reference used regarding dextrous or sinister hands for a north American driver is a deep dive into confusion, so I’ll make no more comment.
And as to your extensive experience, have negotiated roundabouts here for around 50 years, I refute your hyperbole.
Just let me know where you are driving and I’ll try to avoid the area.
I live near Carmel, Indiana, which has the largest number of roundabouts in the US - so while I’m sure you have experience with them, I’m willing to bet that that my statement holds true with maybe a few exceptions.
Either way, as I was going through yet another roundabout this morning, I was thinking about this. Most of our roundabouts that have multiple lanes feed you into lanes which designate or limit your exiting options, so there should be very limited lane-changing - which makes sense, because changing lanes in the midst of turning 90°+ is a pretty stupid move to make in traffic.
I’d much rather the drivers around me worry more about paying attention to their lanes than worry about a turn signal - I should know which exit you’re taking simply by the lane you’re in.
But a car coming from any other entrance would be behind you once you’re on the roundabout, so they should be holding back until you exit it. If they’re already on the roundabout, they have priority anyway, so you would be behind them when you enter and they don’t need to know your plans.
I grew up a couple blocks from one of the only traffic circles in the area. I learned driving there as soon as I learned driving at all. It never held any mysteries or fear for me. It was already normal before I began to drive.
I have always called it a traffic circle. I will always be calling it a traffic circle. Even though I’m a fan of Yes and their song “Roundabout.”
There is exactly ONE in town.
It is miserable to use.
Nobody grasps it, and accidents are common.
Technically, a traffic circle is constructed differently from a roundabout, even if the terms get used interchangeably in casual language. In a traffic circle, the feeder streets meet the circle at essentially a right angle; in a roundabout, the feeder streets curve into and out of the roundabout.
I have a traffic circle (with eight feeder streets!) four blocks away from my house; it’s not a roundabout.
Turn signals and roundabouts. Trying hard to write this in left-hand / right-hand drive agnostic fashion. Let’s see how I do 
I promise no editing on that aspect of my post.
Around here the vast majority of roundabouts are on roads with one lane in each direction. And hence one lane in the roundabout itself.
As I am circulating in the roundabout I try to turn on my turn signal in the direction of exit as I pass the exit before the one I intend to take. And leave it on until I have taken that exit I intend.
The entire value is to give advance warning to anyone wanting to enter where I am exiting. They learn (if they trust my signal) that I will be turning away before we conflict. And so they can plan their entrance based on space / time available between them and the car behind me, not just between them and me. That expedites traffic flow. If everyone did it there would be fewer delays at the entrance points as people unnecessarily wait for oncoming cars that won’t be conflicts.
For bonus points, while circulating in the roundabout, signal in the direction of circulation. That informs folks wanting to enter in front of you that you won’t be exiting before you get to them so they need to give way to you.
This is particularly valuable at a common situation here at many 4-way circles where the vast majority of traffic in all 4 directions is straight through. So anyone observing someone entering e.g. northbound is assuming that car will exit 2 points later to continue e.g. northbound. In that case, being the exception who wants to go three points can lead to conflicts. The southbound person who jumps into the circle in front of somebody in the circle who they’re expecting to exit northbound but doesn’t often leads to loud crunching noises. I’ve had close calls as both parties to that little oopsie. And I try to be hyper-cautious at any location whenever I’m going past 180 degrees around the circle. And especially so at the circles that I know have a large bias for straight-through traffic.
The real problem with signaling in roundabouts is that it’s 400-level driving. And most of our drivers are back at first day of school level driving when it comes to roundabouts. Hell, most of them are at first week of school level about all aspects of their driving.
So you, another 400-level driver like most Dopers, cannot count on the presence or absence of signals carrying any particular meaning. And your own signaling is mostly casting indecipherable pearls before uncomprehending swine.
I was always taught that it’s best to drive on that assumption about just about every potential interaction with every other driver. And now that my only vehicle is a cycle - well, even more so.
For sure. Trust, but don’t blindly trust.
Roundabout or traffic circle, my understanding of the rules around them is that, if you are trying to enter it, you must yield to traffic which is already in the circle/roundabout, and you may only enter it when there is no approaching traffic. This is the rule which I see broken far too often, as people seem to think, “I stopped/slowed down, so I get to go now!”
If a driver who’s already in the circle/roundabout must brake – or even stop – to avoid colliding with you when you enter it, you are doing it wrong!
There are still some older traffic circles that don’t have that rule. They will have yield or stop signs pointed at the traffic in the circle. Many of them have been upgraded to modern roundabout rules, but there’s still some that have not. These are most common in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Traffic engineers, by the way, call them rotaries, since that’s the most common term for traffic circles in New England.
Or rather, you may only enter when there’s room / time for you to do so without impeding the next car in the roundabout who’s headed towards you. In conventional US intersection terms, they are through traffic, you are yielding traffic.
Which is why the best roundabouts have something in the central island that blocks the view of cars on the far side. Those cars shouldn’t be going fast enough that you need to yield to them, so keeping them out of view reduces the amount of unnecessary info that may confuse drivers.
Well, in that case, I grew up with a traffic circle nearby and yet I have no problem negotiating the roundabouts in Washington, DC, because of the practice I’d gotten with the traffic circle near my childhood home.