Mike, if there's room for you to safely pull in ahead of them, go for it. If not, wait for the car to go by then pull in behind them.

I've found if I'm sitting at the entrance to a roundy and there's traffic in there, I watch the front tires of the nearest car. If they start to turn to the left to exit the roundy I pull in to "take his place".

It's really not rocket science, Ya just gotta be watching what cars that are approaching your entrance to see what they are going to do. If they're going to exit on the street you're on, pull in to take their place. If they're not exiting, let them pass and watch the next car for the same actions.

Round-a-about should always be moving, the approach lines are designed in such that the driver should be able, for the most part, time their entry into the traffic device. Example, pick your position and time the "roll out" to slide right into traffic. This can be MORE difficult with multiple lane units. For single lane units, it's easy. The problem is when people think the YIELD signs are STOP signs, no, keep moving at a pace that gives you time to react, time the entry to follow the first car you can or hop out infront.

I'm with you Mike. The way they work in reality doesn't seem to match the theory.

GFC, buck up trader. Things will get better. Please don't say things like you want to shoot yourself. That's a little disconcerting!

If you ever get a chance to drive a car with ESC (electronic stability control) in an empty traffic cirle, it's fun to get to a moderate speed, floor the car, and let the ESC do its thing. It's ever more fun if it's a rental.

In Great Britain, people use their directionals in traffic circles. If memory serves, it goes like this: If they are exiting immediately, they enter with thier left blinker on. If they are taking the second exit, they enter with no blinker on, then as they pass the first exit, they put on their left blinker to exit. If they are taking the third exit, they enter the circle with their right blinker on, then after they pass the second exit, put the left blinker on. It works very smoothly when everybody knows what everybody else intends to do. I do something similar here in the US, but I do not use my left blinker (left, because we drive on the right) to indicate I'm taking the third exit. I don't think people would understand that.

Very well explained Dave.

Drivers that are new to roundabouts should be informed that it's just like turning onto a one way street.

A word of warning of things to come is that over the last 10-15 years in Europe traffic lights have been added to most of the bigger roundabouts due to the increase in traffic volume. Some might find that hard to believe but over there they have monster roundabouts that are 4 lanes wide and are the size of football fields.

A roundabout is like any other road exchange. It is designed to handle X number of cars. When you exceed that number, chaos ensues. When you have the overly timid, or overly aggressive drivers, it screws up the works. And if the design was made by some idiot who specilizes in parking garages and got forced to design one, you are screwed.

And football fields in Europe are bigger than football fields in the USA.

Here's the round-about at the Arc de Triumphe:

But I thought that was old school and dumb?

Depends on how the light is being used. On many congested freeways, lights are used to signal when drivers CAN enter the freeway. This helps balance the merging demand and keeps the freeway following faster. Very common on the west coast. My guess is the lights TEG talks about do the same, basically flip a green light to let a car go, wait 10 seconds, let the next, etc.

Just to say I tried to say something positive:

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/roundabouts.html

But, I don't like them for the most part.

I go through a double set(about 200 feet apart)of two lane roundabouts twice a day. Before they installed the roundys I had to wait or yield at these two intersections each time. Now I rarely have to stop even through they are located on the main arterial leading into the heart of town and I commute at the same time every other government worker in this town does.

I think the secret here is that most all the users know how they work and drive appropriately.

I'm thinking as engineering tasks go, this isn't one of the tougher ones.

I agree, it's pretty much look the specs up in the book, X size has Y capacity and cost Z dollars. Next!

Obviously, you have not had a lot of experience with some of the more poorly designed parking garages. I refer to the ones that use narrow switchbacks and spacing that is tight for even compact cars. Many of those switchbacks are so tight that two vehicles cannot pass in them, and they are totally blind turns.

Seadog: Poor engineering or not enough funding to properly design? Too many compromises?