(inexperienced driver) This happened to me today, I was the blue line and the orange line cut me off so I was forced to exit the roundabout rather than stay on my intended path in order to avoid a collision. What’s the rule here, did I have right of way? Should I have stopped?

36 comments

  1. You are right, the orange has to wait until right lane is clear to cross.
    The same happened to me, I could barely avoid a collision, the other one drove away like a maniac…
    This would never be possible in the Netherlands, they made it different and safer.

  2. You shouldn’t be on the outer lane if you don’t exit on the first exit. Only a few people use this correct so it just doesn’t work. Just try to survive.

    The orange driver makes the manouvre switching lanes so he would be in fault I guess.

  4. Orange is 100% in the wrong.

    I often drive the orange path and am always very aware that I have no right of way, and will circle around the roundabout if needed.

    That being said. I regularly got cut off by people on the blue line, who needed to take a left directly after the roundabout and cut me off by going to the left exit lane from the outside roundabout lane.

    Fuck these people. Fuck them all.

  5. According to the law, you had right of way (in Belgium, in practically every other European country the inside has right of way)

    However, if you didn’t intend to use the first exit, it’s a bit of a dick move to block people who use the roundabout as intended. That said, 90% of Belgians do use a roundabout incorrectly because our law does not protect their right of way when doing it right, and bevat they don’t know it, or are too scared to do it

  6. Fun stuff, I was just posting about this in a different thread!

    Orange is 100% in the wrong here. What they should have done is merge to the outer ring after the last exit they skipped (i.e. the left exit on this picture).

    Many people don’t do this and just barge across two lanes to leave the roundabout, leading to exactly the situation you encountered. It’s infuriating, to say the least.

    Sadly the government carries most responsibility for this, as they’ve gloriously failed to teach people to do this correctly. It’s mentioned [here](https://www.touring.be/nl/artikels/zich-verplaatsen-op-een-rotonde-wat-moet-je-weten) and [here](https://www.politie.be/5415/vragen/verkeer/hoe-gebruik-je-een-rotonde-correct), but as you can see in the comments of this Reddit post, 90% of the people seem to be completely unaware of it.

  7. Nog geen enkele andere Belg tegengekomen op zo’n rotonde die het juist doet. Als je niet de volgende afslag neemt, hoor je niet thuis op het buitenste vak.

  8. Orange is in the wrong, but so many people get it wrong. In fact, I once found myself in the exact same situation as you, and the guy had the balls to honk at me for *actually following the rules of the road*!

    People think that the outside lane is for the first exit and inside lane for other exits, but that’s not the way it is.
    The outside lane is the main lane, the inside/left lane is considered a *passing lane*, as it would be on any other Belgian road.
    So, not only didn’t orange have right of way, but even if you weren’t there it’s still an illegal manoeuver: he can’t exit from the inside lane, he has to first switch lanes, then exit.
    You can use the inside lane for exits after the first, but you never are legally required to. Staying on the outside is the same as staying in the rightmost lane on the highway.

    A problem is that some roundabouts are too small to use the inside lane correctly, and shouldn’t have one at all.

    It’s as if many Belgians got their license in France or something, where the rules are indeed different.

  9. Orange should give right of way, but if he was ahead, I’d slow down so he could easily pass. The point of a roundabout is smooth traffic after all. Just be aware that when you’re entering a roundabout, the inside lane does have priority over you, just like any other road

  10. Am I wrong to think you/blue shouldn’t have been there if you weren’t going to use the first exit?

    I feel a natural tendency to go to the inner side if I need to go straight (2nd exit) or ‘3/4th’ (3rd exit). In your case, I’d have waited to enter the roundabout until orange had passed. Looping around the outer lane doesn’t feel like ‘fluent traffic’.

  11. You definitely had right of way, but that’s in theory. In practice, Belgian roundabouts are just a dick measurement contest in which the smallest, most aggressive dicks are granted extra right of way. All traffic laws stop applying once you cross the shark’s teeth.
    Also, if you have to swerve out of the way and take an earlier exit, please look for cyclists/pedestrians. I’d rather you crash into another car than a cyclist or pedestrian.

  12. The fact that we have such a big discussion here, means that thid kind roundabouts are crap and that people should be leaned how to use them properly.
    When starting to drive, I was really scared to take them.

    Finally, we are adopting ‘super roundabounds’, which is much clearer to use.

  14. You should have taken the inner lane if you intended to go further than the first exit.

    I must admit that these 2-lane roundabouts are a mess in Belgium though.

  15. Doesn’t even matter if they’re on the roundabout or not: as soon as you change lanes you do not have right of way. By changing lanes you’re doing a “maneuver” and loose your right of way.

    So in conclusion: OP was always in his right because the idiot changed lanes (+on a roundabout) without giving way. Simple as that. Personally I would’ve stopped to avoid collision, but definitely not followed him of the roundabout.

    Also important to note: *some* roundabouts make you pre-sort before entering the roundabout. For example: 2 lanes entering the roundabout and only the left lane can be used to take the 3th exit (go left). Usually this is accompanied by the “volle lijn” (uninterrupted line you cannot cross – *in theory*) on the inside line of the roundabout.
    If the orange car had cut you off in this scenario he would’ve: crossed the white line, didn’t give way and didn’t follow the intended path of the roundabout. That’s a serious ticket (if you find the one cop in Belgium doing traffic stops).

    To be fair: Belgium traffic is a bit of a jungle and you need to have eyes everywhere to make it through (“je moet ogen op je gat hebben”). I drive for a living and you wouldn’t believe the things I see people do in traffic every day.

  16. On my commute to work I have to drive through 2 of these double-lane roundabouts. People do not know how to use them and I see people cutting others off on almost a daily basis.

    I have to take the third exit so I always drive on the left lane and switch lanes right after the 2nd exit. If people used the roundabout correctly, this shouldn’t be a problem. If someone is driving on the right and I can’t switch lanes, I’ll just go around again and try again (albeit with a bit of swearing) because they have right of way and I don’t.

    In Belgium, these roundabouts are a warzone.

  17. Multi lane roundabouts are just a shit show over here because there’s no arrows signifying what lane you should use for what exit(s). That should solve this interaction given people drive around the same speed on roundabouts and thus don’t mix with people from other entrances

  18. These roundabouts are just shit and the ones in The Netherlands are much better. Only now are they finally getting to the ‘turbo-roundabout’ concept like it’s some great new invention.

  19. You can crash your car on a daily basis and be in your right all Day. I think no one in Belgium knows how this works, and i mean No One.

  20. So nobody is going to say something about that strange incoming road in the right upper corner? How the hell is this going to work to enter the roundabout? It’s pretty much a U-turn…

  21. The only accident I ever had, happened exactly like this. He cut me off, and I hit him in the side, even with braking and steering to the right to avoid him.
    He was also speeding, because when I entered the roundabout there wasn’t any car behind me, which is why I didn’t bother to go to the middle lane of the round about. By the time it registered someone was driving to my left, he was already cutting me off as well. Very young dude in a too expensive Audi…
    Then again, expo Ghent, a lot of people speed on the road between IKEA and the first round about to the R4 there. They seem to think it’s a race track.

    He was at fault, not me.

  24. You have right of way.

    Unless the other one was in a black big BMW type “something expensive”.

    ​

    /s

  27. There are 2 legal rules and 1 norm applying here.

    legally:

    1 Continuing traffic on the same road has the right of way
    2. You’re not allowed to pass on the right

    Norm: If you take the first exit you sort in on the right, if not you can still take the right lane but you need to be mindful of people that might want to exit. If you stay behind a person and don’t pass on the right this is generally not an issue.

    ​

    I do not know how much of this applies to your exact situation but I personally try to drive “Socially” which means that besides the law, you keep an eye out for what other people in traffic might do or need.

    With all the above in mind I have never had an issue on even 4 lane roundabouts.

  29. In Belgium you have right of way.
    In most other countries you wouldn’t. Other people here already explained why.
    So I’ll just add that on the road, other people make mistakes too, and you share the road with hundreds of them on a single drive.
    So it’s a good idea to always drive defensive, regardless of who’s right. In the end, being right is not worth a broken spine.

  33. I never really understood 2 laned roundabouts. I understand them in practice and how to use them, but I never really saw how they’d make things faster/safer on small roundabouts. the laneswitching that happens when preparing to take your exit seems more dangerous to me, especially if multiple exits are very close to each other.

    I only really see the benefit if there’s a traffic jam on one exit, but that might be a more niche case.

  34. Orange is definitely at fault here.

    You cannot exit the roundabout from the 2nd lane like that

  36. The orange line changed of direction, which is a manoeuver. Then, the conductor of the orange line doesn’t have the priority.

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