Driving around those circles
Cape Townians are not used to traffic circles (or round-abouts as they are known in the USA and UK) – that much is obvious when observing the way most drivers negotiate the circles along Grand National Boulevard. The Traffic Department kindly supplied us with these “Rules of the Road” regarding Traffic Circles.
1.	Slow down when approaching the circle – your speed should be down to about 15kph, so that you can safely stop for pedestrians or if vehicles are approaching from your right.
2.	Yield to traffic coming from your right. This everyone seems to know, but many people still arrive at a circle too fast to stop when they see another vehicle and then take a chance and speed up to enter the circle in front of the other vehicle.
3.	Indicate your intentions. This one nobody seems to bother about, and it causes considerable irritation. Use your indicator on approaching the circle to indicate whether you are going to turn left or right at the circle. If you are going straight on beyond the circle, you need not indicate, but it is safe practice to briefly put on your left indicator once past the entry to your left, particularly if there are vehicles waiting at the road you are entering. If you are going three quarters round the circle, indicate right until you are level with the opposite entry, then indicate left before exiting the circle.
4.	Yield to pedestrians. We have pedestrian crossings at some of our circles, and traffic must yield to pedestrians if the pedestrian is approaching the crossing on the left side, or halfway across from the opposite side. Pedestrians on the crossings have right of way not only when you enter the circle, but also when you exit it. There are Yield for Pedestrian signs at these crossings.
But we also notice that pedestrians are not making it easier for vehicles. An extremely dangerous practice is that people often take a ‘short cut’ and walk directly across a circle instead of using the pavement round the circle. Drivers cannot see them on the other side of the circle and there has been some near accidents.
The Traffic Department also mentioned that even at a pedestrian crossing, pedestrians must take care. Vehicles cannot stop immediately and pedestrians must not step onto the crossing unless a vehicle is a considerable distance away. The best is to wait at the side of the crossing until the vehicle has stopped before crossing. Remember that while the law states that the vehicle must stop for you, you cannot rely on all drivers to obey the law.