OPINION • Roundabouts can be super efficient… when everyone uses them correctly.
First published in our 5 July 2018 print edition.
One of the great features of the circular intersections is the ability for vehicles travelling in entirely different directions to enter without getting in the way of each other. For the most part, they work well.
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In fact, roundabouts work so well Warragul now has three new ones on Mason Street. But there is one simple rule drivers need to remember to keep traffic moving: if you can’t exit, don’t enter.
“You should not enter a roundabout unless you can safely exit,” a VicRoads spokesperson confirmed to the Baw Baw Citizen.
These rules exist for all intersections, but it seems many people forget when entering roundabouts.
Blocking a roundabout can mean blocking traffic in many directions. It can turn a momentary jam into gridlock, the likes of which towns as small as ours should not experience.
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It’s a small problem, I know, but that means it’s one we can fix.
Maybe someone from either Vicroads or the BBSC should tell that to the multiple morons who blocked and then decided to turn the single lane roundabout entering in to the one way section of Palmerston Street into an illegal dual lane roundabout on the weekend a fortnight before Christmas. Yes, everyone was trying to find a car park during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year, which in Warragul, would have been a Christmas miracle. It was not only highly dangerous at the time, but would have presented a litigation nightmare in the event of an accident, as how would you explain that you weren’t in the wrong, if your car was hit in what is meant to be a single lane roundabout. Surely, the BBSC would have captured this footage on one of their multiple CCTV cameras that are currently dotted all around Warragul.
Agree the “roundabout etiquette” in Warragul (or more correctly, lack of it)is about the top frustration of moving around Warragul.