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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
