Roundabout ahead

What it means

This sign warns that a roundabout lies ahead, where traffic moves counterclockwise around a central island and every entering driver yields to traffic already circulating. Roundabouts replace the stop-and-start of signalised junctions with continuous flow, but only if entering drivers understand that their obligation is to fit a gap rather than claim a turn. The sign gives you time to slow, pick your lane and abandon any straight-road mindset, because the junction has no straight path through it and the geometry rewards drivers who arrived prepared.

How it gets misread

A frequent misread is entering on the assumption that drivers already in the circle will yield, reversing the actual rule. Another is treating both approach lanes as interchangeable when the lane you choose determines where you can exit.

What to do

Slow to a speed at which you could stop before the yield line, choose your lane according to your exit, and look to your left for circulating traffic. Enter only into a gap that does not force anyone already in the roundabout to brake. Once inside, keep moving; do not stop within the circle to let entering drivers in, because that breaks the system the whole junction runs on.

Practise this rule

• Roundabout Right of Way: Who Goes First?

  You are approaching a single-lane roundabout and another car is already travelling around it. Who has the right of way?

More warning signs

• Merge left ahead →
• Lane ends →

Browse all road signs