36Oly_Rider

Whats the best way to approach them?

Here in my hometown, they put in a bunch of them, mainly on the main roads and boulevards. There are bike paths, but at the roundabouts, they merge onto the sidewalk which is fine if you're turning right, but if you wish to continue on the road you're on, you're pretty much forced to use the crosswalks and a lot of times, its a pain in the rear to cross over.

A lot of them are two lanes and I know I can use a lane, but during peak traffic a motorist really wouldn't be able to see a cyclist immediately due to the high center medians.

I've been back about a year now, and still trying to figure it out. I know their intentions, but for cycling, in my opinion, they are poorly designed as they have them. Usually, I try to make some contact with the driver, but dang man, these big roundabouts make that difficult and put me on edge and causes my sweat to sweat bullets.

garciawork

I don't encounter them often, but the drivers here are all really nice... so they don't mind a cyclist. That said, I try to get out of the saddle and hammer through them, providing as little inconvenience to the cars as possible. I only ride on the road though, so I am used to dealing with cars.

Bmach

I just take the lane and go about 20+ mph.

Jiggle

I'm faster than any car I've ever encountered on a roundabout. Maybe just dial it up?

John00

They have lots of them in my town, there is one one block from my house. Yield to the right of way and take your lane when you enter. I've never had any trouble.

79pmooney

I had three round-a-bouts on my commute into Boston 49 years ago. All were on dips in the parkway. I had a good view of all the reaffic and could easily hit the round-a-bouts at good speed so I used to time my entrance to be right on a cars bumper. (Not literally, say 4 feet back.) This based on my observation that this was the pocket of space in the traffic flow that (almost) never had another vehicle in it. This worked really well, but i would never do it except for one thing: I always rode fix gears when I did this. I found that when the brake light of the car in front came on, I was backing off with my legs and gaining "cushion" in front before I could get to the brakes; that apparently the brain had a much more direct wiring to my legs than my hands.

(To this day, I DO NOT LIKE freewheel riders drafting me when I am riding fixed without telling me. I can still initiate a slowdown far faster and without giving them any of the usual signs.)

Round-a-bouts are all about having speed and speed control. Without those, I am willing to pass up cars until I get one who will slow and protect me from behind.

Ben

SpeshulEd 

This. I go through them like I would if I was driving a car. Nothing to worry about.

Traffic should yield to you if you're in the circle like they would a car...just like you should yield to cars already in the circle.

bmthom.gis

I take the lane, and go through as if I were any other vehicle, and once I've exited I go back over to my part of the lane

cthenn

What cars *should* do, and what they actually do in a roundabout are 2 different things. I personally don't like them, driving or riding. I know studies have shown blah blah blah and in Europe blah blah blah, but the problem is NOBODY knows how to drive through them. People end up stopping, or not yielding at all, it's a total crapshoot, and I don't feel in control of the situation when encountering these things. There is no predictability with how others approach them, so it's always a guessing game. Scares me every time I go through one, car or bike. We're too used to stop signs and traffic signals, and it'll take decades and a vast increase in the number of roundabouts to train everyone how to drive through them. Theoretically, I'm in favor of them, by all accounts they reduce pollution and wait times at intersections, but until the majority of drivers are familiar with them, they just scare me.

Oh, and to answer the OP, on the bike, I just make myself look as big as possible, and use hand signals, make eye contact with anyone coming on my left, and just hope I make it through. I much prefer the predictability of stop signs.

CliffordK

We have a bunch of those little tiny one-lane round-a-bouts with a center bump about the size of a parked car. Traffic is usually low, and I just look both directions and shoot past those.

We only have one larger 2-lane round-a-bout.

I dislike hitting it for a 3/4 circle, and will often adjust my approach to give me a 1/4 or 1/2 path through it. The hardest is hitting a median strip bike path off of it.

Like others have mentioned, I try to hit it as fast as possible. But, look for a clearing then go.

I figure my 2 seconds in the round-a-bout is less disruptive to traffic than activating all the cross-walk signal lights.

Visibility is such that I have an unimpeded view of all traffic, 360° around it. I haven't thought whether the bike is visible from the opposite side, but I should be plenty visible to all nearby vehicles.

VNA

It is a question of getting familiar with them wether driving or cycling.
The most important part is to be as visible as possible and keeping up with the traffic which usually is not too hard since traffic is usually slow through them.
The one that are really scary are the multi lanes with no lane markings as we find in Europe.

Jim from Boston

Round-a-bout-a-phobia

Quote:

Originally Posted by 79pmooney

I had three round-a-bouts on my commute into Boston 49 years ago…

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmthom.gis

I take the lane, and go through as if I were any other vehicle, and once I've exited I go back over to my part of the lane

As @79mooney mentions, we have many in Metro Boston. I think I pretty much handle round-a-bouts / rotaries as described by @bmthom, facilitated by wearing right and left hand mirrors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I use both left and right rearview mirrors, in my case Take-a-Look eyeglass mounted ones. I got the idea from a cycling companion who used only a right hand mirror. The additional right hand mirror affords a pretty good rearward view, but is particularly useful

1. Riding on the left-hand side of a one-way street
2. Riding in the middle or left lanes of a two-way thoroughfare
3. In a rotary
4. On a curved road to the right
5. When passing entrance/exit ramps from a freeway, with the right hand mirror, I can view the ramps to my right, and stay wide of them, while watching upcoming traffic on my left, all while almost continuously looking straight ahead
6. When the sun is directly behind, usually one mirror can be positioned away from the glare of the sun
7. When wearing a backpack, usually one mirror has a less-obstructed view over my shoulder…
   Quote:

   Originally Posted by Stun

   …The best advice often comes from cyclists that live the closest to you...The exception here would also be Jim from Boston--anyone that can successfully commute around Boston has my full respect and probably knows how to deal with about every intersection imaginable!

   Quote:

   Originally Posted by chefisaac

   LISTEN to @Jim from Boston
   
   he knows his $hit!

12strings

I also used to bike commute in Boston before moving back to the Midwest, but soon after I got here, they put in a circle at one of the main intersections. I just rode through it to and from work today.

I view them as an adventure. I generally only need to go straight through, here's my approach:

As I approach, I take the right lane completely, looking around a lot and getting out of the saddle to be taller. I try to not slow down too much unless there's just no gap, then I will occasionally have to stop and wait. Keep taking the lane until I'm all the way through, then I get back on to the shoulder.

12strings

Of course, those of us that actually enjoy riding a bicycle in Boston during rush hour are a special kind of crazy, so take it for what it's worth...

veloz

I take the lane. Biggest problem I encounter is drivers merging in and not seeing me. I always look for eye contact. Windshield A pillars tend to obstruct bikers.

mpath

Also be careful of moronic incoming drivers shortcutting left in the roundabout (your right). I've had that happen a couple of times.

pdedes

i love roundabouts, they reward aggressive cycling. the most important thing to know is that right-of-way belongs to vehicles in the roundabout. so i want to get there first. i leave the bike lane and take the centre of the lane in a single lane roundabout, signal my intention, that's it. in a two lane roundabout, i want to take the 3rd exit, get into the left most lane by checking and signalling before the roundabout, enter the roundabout and signal my exit.

SpikedLemon

Ditto.

Make very sure you take the full lane though. Some inconsiderate drivers will assume they can 'safely' pass you within your lane in the roundabout.

fastturtle

Around here there are really a huge lot of roundabouts. I might say that wherever there is enough space to build one, this has become the standard way of dealing with the intersection.

Many of them are really small, specially in town, like these two:
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.7851...7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.9842...7i13312!8i6656

or a bit larger:
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.8716...7i13312!8i6656

As long as they are single-lane, I find them really easy to handle, fluid and very practical. The way to do is to take the lane, and on the smaller ones you will not actually follow the circle but most likely cut through it. It is clear that you do have to look out to what others are doing, specially those wanting to enter the roundabout.
Initially, the concept was that cyclists should follow the outer edge. In France, you still find very often a bike lane at this outer edge, and the danger is that the vehicles entering the roundabout won't look for you there, and vehicles exiting will cut you. Here in Switzerland it has been recognized that taking the lane is the safest way, and it is also widely accepted by motorists.

Double-lane roundabouts are more intimidating and less easy to handle, and we also have a few of them. The official technique is that you should take the lane in the outermost lane, which I find reasonable.
This one is quite recent and often quite crowded: https://www.google.com/maps/@46.9554...7i13312!8i6656. The difficulty, for cyclists and motorists alike, is to find the gap to enter the roundabout. This is made difficult because as the circle is too wide, motorists accelerate as if their duty was to prevent others to use the road... but once you managed that it is not that bad, but you have more chances than on single-lane ones to be cut by motorists exiting from the inner lane.

This one is an oldtimer, built in the 60's at the glorious times when they were building fast roads for a bright future full of cars: https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5164...7i13312!8i6656

Initially it had 3 lanes and was frightening even in a car. They ended up closing one lane to make it a bit more civilized, but still not a pleasant experience on a bike.

In France, they have a lot of big ones almost as bad as this one, and are still building more. And on those ones, yes you better pedal as fast as you can and look 360° all the time.

Last but not least (I should say "last and worst") is this famous one, although it works the old way (vehicles entering have right-of-way). I was there earlier this week on my Brompton, and was quite relieved when I managed to exit: https://www.google.com/maps/@48.8737...7i13312!8i6656

Now, do we want bike paths to avoid roundabouts ? On the vast majority of roundabouts I encounter in my area but also riding through France, bike paths around the roundabout are just a nuisance as you have to yield at every single road that radiates from the roundabout, and following the road is no big deal. In some monster cases, they will still be a nuisance, but a welcome one in comparison.

In rare cases, on very, very large ones, they will build cycling underpasses which may be a good idea (provided you know the place, because otherwise you will get lost in that plate of spaghetti with usually no usable signage).