Letter: Roundabouts and bad driving

Letter: When I learned to drive in the late 60s, we were told when using a roundabout to take the shortest route on, and the shortest route off, using tangents.

If I approached a roundabout and intended to take the third exit, I approached it in the right hand lane, indicating right and crossed over to the island, hugging the kerb until my exit came in view and, indicating left, departed down that road.

This worked perfectly and accidents on roundabouts, or even difficulties using them, seemed to be rare.

Yet now, I am confronted by motorists, on a daily basis, idiotically approaching a roundabout from the left hand lane and driving round to the last exit, remaining in the left hand lane, and en route cutting off the exits to other motorists who are using the road correctly.

Please may we have a road safety campaign that stops this idiocy and has the slogan: "You don't turn right from the left hand lane."

Furthermore, we were also taught that the objective of a good road user was to go from departure to destination without causing another road user to speed up, slow down or change direction.

Motorways, and some major roads, have very helpful slip roads to enable motorists to accelerate up to the speed of the traffic there, before joining it, so they merge seamlessly.

I was recently obliged to join the M6 from the M54, but the motorist in front slowed down and stopped where the motorways merged, thus trapping me into having to join traffic that was travelling at 70mph from a standing start!

Michael Smitten

Shifnal