Someone was asking why the Highway Code (HC) shows a car coming off in the right-hand lane when turning right.
Just to clarify, this is the picture the HC uses to explain roundabouts.
It doesn’t show a car turning right (the green arrows) coming off JUST in the right-hand lane. It shows a car turning right using EITHER the left- or right-hand lanes.
It does not show a car merely using the right-hand lane to exit, nor does it advocate this as the preferred default. It is simply showing that you can use either/any of the lanes if there is more than one. It doesn’t say anything about “if it’s safe to do so”, because that should be taken as read.
That’s because on an unmarked roundabout where a single lane entry carriageway leads off to a multi-lane carriageway, this is exactly what you would do – if cars in the left-hand lane were going slower, for example, or perhaps if you were getting ready to turn right further on, then you would legitimately exit to another lane on that carriageway. I suspect that the complaint has something to do with learners and lane discipline – however, the HC is something learners are supposed to adhere to, not something that needs to be dumbed down for them
Of course, if you had multi-lane entrances to the roundabout, and/or road markings, then you’d use the appropriate lane suggested by the markings (the HC says that, too).
As I often have to explain to my pupils, there is the basic roundabout procedure – but road markings can change all that.
Another thing I see a lot of is instructors not teaching their pupils to drive properly, but forcing them to do everything in the left-hand lane – even when they NEED the right-hand lane almost immediately after some junction. They then have to indicate and change lanes, often causing others to slow down to let them in – which is just about OK on their tests if they do it properly, but a guaranteed fail if they don’t.
I teach mine to plan ahead. If you’re going to turn right, then right again 200m further on, bloody well get in the right-hand lane for the first turn so you don’t have to force everyone to stop 25m before the next one to let you in.