Roundabouts

I learned about roundabouts while overseas primarily in England and Saudi Arabia. The English roundabouts were tame since most English people are rather professional drivers and have used roundabouts for generations. Now, I have to admit that when I was in Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War (Desert Storm, yes, I’m THAT old!) I learned that the Saudis were basically first-generation drivers and basically just trusted Allah with everything. That means they were hammer down right on through the roundabout. Also, they seemed to have an unwritten rule that if you are in the roundabout (and therefore have right of way) but make EYE CONTACT with someone trying to enter, you have just given them the go-ahead! I don’t know how, but it worked. I heard of some another country in which that people entering the roundabout have the right of way. How that works, I don’t understand since more people can enter than get out.

All that said, Omaha, Minnesota and Wisconsin have completely and enthusiastically embraced roundabouts. I’ve never seen so many in all my driving life as I did on our first long trip. I must admit that I appreciate the convenience of them since you only have to slow down enough to enter them safely and then you can breeze around to your exit. The issue I have is that in many of the ones I’ve just been traversing, they have a major road with 2 lanes simultaneously entering the roundabout from both directions which means that, at least to me, there’s a certain ambiguity about who can exit where. By this I mean that the person on the outside has to exit before the one on the inside BUT the “straight through” exit on the other side seemed to always have two lanes exiting! How does this not cause more accidents? If someone enters on the right, say someone with a long vehicle, like an RV, who’s trying to stay out of everyone’s way, wants to go ¾ of the way around, he is likely to cut off the inside track trying to basically go straight across. Hypothetically of course. Not that I have ever done something like that but there does seem to be some unwritten rules that really need to be written somewhere for novices! Hypothetically speaking of course!