Blenheim drivers clueless, in a roundabout way, claims instructor

Friday, 12 May 2017

AA driving instructor Michael McCann is fed up with Blenheim drivers failing to indicate correctly at roundabouts.

In a town full of roundabouts, what's a couple more?

But news of the extra intersections is cold comfort to one driving instructor, who can't get his head around how bad Blenheim drivers are at using them.

Blenheim is known as the largest town in New Zealand without traffic lights. Instead it has roundabouts, 17 in fact, with more on the way.

Plans for a new subdivision show a roundabout will be constructed at the corner of Old Renwick Rd and Mowat St.

**READ MORE:

How to indicate correctly going through a roundabout.

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* New Zealand's biggest town without traffic lights: Blenheim

Plans for new subdivision Rose Manor show a roundabout is planned for the intersection of Old Renwick Rd and Mowat St.

* Blenheim's newest roundabout takes shape at Spring Creek

* Roundabouts in Marlborough a headache for cyclists

Blenheim drivers routinely fail to indicate properly going into, and exiting roundabouts, a driving instructor claims.

* Care at roundabouts urged**

Just north of the town, work is continuing on the Spring Creek roundabout on State Highway 1, which the New Zealand Transport Agency website said was supposed to be finished in June.

But AA driving instructor Michael McCann said, despite the abundance of roundabouts in Blenheim, many drivers were still clueless about how to use them.

'People indicate left and they go straight ahead, they indicate right and they go straight ahead,' he said.

'I see it all the time, day in, day out - people just don't indicate correctly at roundabouts.

'I would probably say thank God we don't have traffic lights, because we can't even get around roundabouts correctly.'

Marlborough Roads highway manager Frank Porter said roundabouts had generally provided efficient intersection controls in Blenheim, with some small delays at peak times.

'One of the safety features of roundabouts is the relatively low speeds at which all traffic has to approach and travel through,' he said.

'When roundabouts reach capacity, future options will include two-laning of roundabouts or traffic signals.'

McCann said shoddy driving at roundabouts made him take a cautious approach on the drive home, which saw him pass through the Alabama and Maxwell Rd roundabout.

'A tradesman never blames his tools, it's the same with drivers. It doesn't matter if it's a small roundabout or not, you still have to follow the rules,' he said.

It was not just McCann who had noticed a myriad of mistakes. Marlborough highway patrol Sergeant Barrie Greenall said he often saw people fail to indicate correctly at roundabouts.

'Some drivers struggle to use them correctly under the current regulations and advice, some of them are still driving to the previous regulations,' Greenall said.

A law change in 2005 required drivers to indicate out of roundabouts. Whereas previously they did not have to indicate going straight, drivers now had to indicate left before they made the exit.

'There is a mixture out there of ignorance of the current rules, laziness and poor decision making,' Greenall said.

'People complain to us about the $30 speeding tickets outside schools, saying it's revenue gathering for police,' he said.

'If what the police were trying to do was gather revenue we would sit at roundabouts giving tickets for $150 a time.'

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