You approach a small road junction marked with a solid white circle painted on the road surface and, on a post beside it, a blue circular sign showing three curved white arrows chasing each other clockwise. What does this combination indicate, and which vehicles must give way?
- It marks a normal roundabout; only larger vehicles like buses and lorries must give way to traffic already circulating
- It is purely decorative traffic-calming; no particular vehicle has to give way to another
- It marks a mini-roundabout: you must give way to traffic already on the roundabout approaching from your immediate right, unless road markings indicate otherwise
- It marks a one-way gyratory system where all traffic must travel anti-clockwise regardless of direction of approach
Why C? And why not the others?
Correct answer: C. It marks a mini-roundabout: you must give way to traffic already on the roundabout approaching from your immediate right, unless road markings indicate otherwise
A mini-roundabout is marked by the same blue circulating-arrow sign used at larger roundabouts, but sited over a compact painted white circle rather than a raised kerbed island, and the give-way rule is identical in principle: a driver approaching must give way to traffic already circulating on the roundabout that is arriving from their immediate right, unless signs or markings say otherwise for a particular arm. Restricting the give-way duty to large vehicles only is wrong, since the rule applies to every vehicle regardless of size; the give-way-to-the-right mechanism does not vary by vehicle class. Calling the marking purely decorative ignores that a mini-roundabout's circulating-arrow sign is a legally enforceable priority-giving order, not a traffic-calming suggestion, so ignoring it can genuinely breach another driver's right of way. Assuming a fixed anti-clockwise one-way gyratory is also wrong: the circulating arrows describe the direction traffic travels around the roundabout itself, clockwise in the UK because traffic keeps to the left, not a claim that every vehicle enters from one fixed direction; approach and give-way still depend on the immediate-right rule from whichever arm each driver joins.
Source: The Highway Code: Traffic signs — signs giving orders (GOV.UK), mini-roundabout sign; Rule 188