The Director General of Traffic has issued guidelines for drivinga round roundabouts in Spain due to the prolifieration of so called “gloriestas” on the roads and particularly in urban areas.
The graffic featured here has been issued by the Director of traffic and clearly shows good manoevres (marked bien) and bad manouvres (marked mal).
First of all the DGT explains that all roundabouts “are not the same.” For example some have “Give Way” signs and others are controlled by traffic lights.
In any case the rules are the same but, according to the General Director, many drivers cdon´t know how to use them and in 2012 some seven percent of accidents were on roundabouts. Every year accidents on roundabouts cost 42 lives, some two percent of the total RTA fatalities.
According to the DGT the vehicles which are circulating on the inside lane always have the right of way. On entering the roundabout drivers must choose the appropriate lane for the direction they are going to take, for example, if they are taking the last exit and the outside lane is very congested they can circulate for the inside lanes.
The use of indicators is not obligatory on entering the roundabout, especially when drivers are going to take the first exit. But indicators must always be used for changing lanes and when leaving the roundabout for any of the other exits the right hand indicator should be employed at the point of exit. Drivers should not exit the roundabout from the inside lane unless there are signs or road markings indicating that this is permitted.
For more information, graffics and videos go to the DGT website.
