Take Care At Mini-Roundabouts

Beware of Vehicles Taking A Shortcut!

Mini-Roundabouts are being installed  more often in Cyprus these days as a convenient way of controlling traffic at intersections in quieter residential areas. Generally they work very well but just a word of warning…

The basic rules of roundabout use apply-which of course means that on reaching a mini-roundabout you give way to any vehicle approaching from the right. However be extra careful because a lot of drivers seem to think that as the roundabout doesn`t physically exist but is just painted on the road surface, they can treat it as being for decorative purposes only! In other words you might have a situation where a car takes a short cut right across the roundabout. This can catch you out if you were taking it for granted that it was going to take the proper route around the roundabout.

So when trying to assess if you have time to safely enter the mini-roundabout take note of the speed of any vehicle approaching from your right. Mini-roundabouts are by nature small and require you to go fairly slowly to negotiate them properly. So a driver approaching too fast may be giving you an unintended clue that he intends to treat it as an overabout rather than a roundabout!

By the way- always expect larger vehicles such as trucks, buses and those hollywood-style stretched limos to take a shortcut over a mini-roundabout. At least they have the excuse that they cannot possibly take the tight turn to go around properly!