Driver's 'ingenious' method cuts out queues on roundabout but there's 'rude' problem

A driver's "ingenious" method for completely cutting out queues on a busy roundabout has divided fellow motorists, with some blasting it as rude and others in amazement they hadn't thought to try it for themselves. There's hundreds of rules of the road to follow, as per the Highway Code, with roundabouts often causing headaches for both new and experienced drivers.

There's detailed information on how to tackle roundabouts in the code, with all drivers well aware of the basics - such as using mirror-signal-manouvre "at all stages" and giving way to the right "unless directed otherwise by signs, road markings or traffic lights" - but some drivers know how to utilise lanes to their advantage.

A method being dubbed "the slingshot" sees drivers who wish to turn left at the first exit of the roundabout instead driving in the righthand lane and then entering the roundabout before travelling the whole way around it and taking the exit, bypassing the queue of cars waiting in the lefthand lane to turn left.

Now a video of someone completing this crafty trick was shared on social media, with one driver sharing it to Reddit to query whether or not it was legal.

The Reddit user posted the video and penned: "Saw this on socials. He basically takes the first exit but goes all around to avoid the queue. Is it legal?"

In the comments section, people shared their thoughts. One person said: "Absolutely legal."

Another said: "I'm more annoyed he's filmed it and shown everyone else."

A third commented: "He is giving away all the best tricks!"

Someone else posted: "Exactly my thinking, I assumed it was an obvious loophole that most folks would do, but nahhh, it's usually me skipping the 30 cars and doing ye olde slingshot."

Then a user shared: "I've been doing this for years, never understood why so many others just wait in line. The roundabout has a whole 2nd lane of capacity totally unused, why not use it.

"I've seen in the thread that it's considered a d**k move, but I cannot fathom why it would be, it's other road users' choice to sit in line if they want to, this option is available to anyone and is totally within the rules. Using half the road's capacity is just silly."

Someone wondered whether the "slingshot" was better or worse for traffic and road congestion.

They said: "I've actually just thought about it again and realised that another side effect of many cars doing the slingshot would be that they would block traffic from entering the roundabout from other exits.

"And fewer cars entering from other roads would presumably mean more traffic could enter from the road in question, so therefore it would indeed speed things up for everyone coming from that road, at the cost of queues starting to build up on other entrance roads.

"But then what if everyone on those other roads started slingshotting as well? My head hurts."

And another said: "More people doing this = more people on the roundabout = everyone waits longer for a gap so you can enter."