The fact that the road transport department (JPJ) feels the need to remind motorists how to correctly use a roundabout speaks volumes about Malaysian drivers (and our driving schools) in general. We may not have as many of these as countries like the UK do, but I will admit this is something I feel quite strongly about, because I live near a roundabout and encounter clueless roundabout users almost daily.
First and foremost – and this is the number one rule – vehicles already in the roundabout always have the right of way. This means that as you approach the roundabout, you must give way to vehicles coming from the right.
Even if you want to take the 9 o’clock/left/first exit (this appears to be a common mistake in Malaysia), you do not have the right of way and cannot just power through blindly (unless there’s a dedicated left-turn slip road bypassing the roundabout, which obviously means you’re not entering the roundabout at all). You must first slow down upon entry, indicate left and check for oncoming vehicles. If there are any, let them go first.
For the 12 o’clock/straight ahead/second exit, on a three-lane roundabout as depicted above, you may use either the left or middle lanes. On a two-lane roundabout as pictured below, you may use either lane, but using the left lane is safer because it helps avoid clashing with any vehicles in the outer-most lane of the roundabout when it’s time to exit.
You do not need to indicate upon entry (because you’re going straight ahead), but once you have passed the 9 o’clock/left/first exit, check your mirrors and indicate left before you exit.
For the 3 o’clock/right/third exit or the 6 o’clock/U-turn/fourth exit, use only the right-most lane, regardless of whether it’s a two- or three-lane roundabout. You will be cutting across lanes to enter the inner-most lane of the roundabout, so exercise care. Once you have passed the 12 o’clock/straight ahead/second exit (or the 3 o’clock/right/third exit if you’re doing a U-turn), check your mirrors and indicate left before you exit.
It is good practice to get into the outer-most lane of the roundabout once you have passed one (1) exit before the one you want to take (just like how you get into the left-most lane before your highway exit). Doing this not only makes you more visible to vehicles waiting to enter the roundabout but avoids you having to abruptly cut across lanes to exit. This would also mean that you leave the roundabout on the left-most lane.
Now that you’ve read all this, can you tell who’s at fault in the video below? And how would you navigate a roundabout shaped like this?
budak budak tiktok ramai yang taktau rules roundabout. pic.twitter.com/zprOBNb9m4
— doosik (@sakaramona) September 20, 2023
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Great…everyone please learn this, or else more and more roundabout will change into traffic lights to control the dumbs, indirectly slow down traffic causing traffic jam.
In the first pic with 3 colors, it seems the red car have to cut across 2 lanes to get into the most inner lane and he have to do it before the west exit. Now imagine it’s busy roundabout, this will cause honking by other cars that are already in the roundabout or entering from the north/east entrance. this will also slow traffic down just to let the red car go to the most inner lane. if not the red car will have to wait forever until all 3 lanes are clear before he can enter. For a smooth flow of traffic, it is better for a car to merge into existing traffic almost parallelly & at the same speed of the existing traffic, not abruptly 90 degrees like the red or blue car.
the picture only shows cars entering from one entry(south) only, now superimpose the same rules for all entry points(west/north/east) and you will see a lot of intersecting lines which will cause chaos.