#BTSpeakingOut – Of roundabouts and common sense in Six Roads

First, a disclaimer: I was not trained in traffic management.

Two persons made very incisive comments about common sense.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), considered the most important of French Romantic writers, once said: “Common sense is in spite of, not as a result of education.”

Steve Harvey, the popular American television personality uttered one of the wittiest sayings ever. He said, “I’m not a doctor. I just have a tremendous amount of common sense.”

There is no doubt that the application of common sense can reduce the number of accidents occurring at roundabouts.

The new traffic flow to be implemented at the Wynter Crawford Roundabout is a replication and reinforcement of the poorly conceived arrangement in vogue at other roundabouts across the island.

Apparently, nobody understands the risky and hazardous manoeuvres occurring at roundabouts on a daily basis.

Motorists approaching the roundabout in the right lane should not be exiting straight ahead across the path of motorists exiting from lanes 1 and 2. Instead, motorists approaching the roundabout in the right lane should only be allowed to
exit the roundabout at lanes 4 and 5 or completely circle the roundabout.  

One would think that the arrangement is to allow for a smooth flow of traffic, with the most important consideration being the avoidance of motorists crossing others’ paths.

A safer and less risky approach is to allow motorists to approach the roundabout in the left lane to proceed straight ahead and also turn left at Lanes 1 and 2.

The idea here is that motorists approaching the roundabout are already in the left lane which is always considered the correct side of the road on which to drive.

Motorists approaching the roundabout to proceed straight ahead are involved in an unnecessary manoeuvre of switching from left to right to left again. Fewer manoeuvres should result in fewer complications, and fewer complications should result in fewer accidents.

Traffic flow arrangements determine the amount of accidents that will occur in the vicinity of roundabouts. Are any statistics available for public consumption?

Michael Ray