BREAZE

I have to say that roundabouts are one of my pet hates.  Roundabouts are designed with cars and trucks in mind, making an intersection more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians.

Where I can I choose a route which avoids roundabouts.  One thing I love about using a bike to travel around  is that I can use side streets and short cuts.  It's often safer, more scenic and faster to use quiet side streets and paths.  Travelling to work cycling I would use completely different roads to if I was driving in a car and taking the most obvious route along main roads, which nowadays are often congested as well.

I do use roundabouts, and some are hard to avoid.  One example is the 'pinch point' on Macarthur St at the top of Drummond St near the cemetery.  As I'm coming up to the roundabout I look for a gap in the cars, indicate with my right hand that I'm going to merge, then take the centre of the lane and keep it until I'm through the roundabout.

Bicycle Victoria have a page on the rules for going through roundabouts here: http://www.bv.com.au/general/bikes-and-riding/11136/

It is possible to design a roundabout to make it safer for bikes.  The Ballarat Council's Bike Strategy says that "roundabouts should be of a ‘continental design’ encouraging cyclists and motorists to merge before the circulatory carriageway of the roundabout".  Instead, most of Ballarat's roundabouts are "designed with flared entries (widening of approach lane) and wide circulatory carriageways that encourage higher traffic speeds and reduce the presence of cyclists. Where entries are wide, motorists and cyclists are not encouraged to merge before entering a roundabout and as a result are not appropriately acknowledged by drivers."

So there are a number of things that can be done to make roundabouts safer.  The ‘continental design’ mentioned above, off-road paths for cyclists to leave the road to get past the intersection, pedestrian operated signal crossings or change the intersection to traffic signals.

Some roundabouts, like the two lane one on Creswick Road and Webster St, I find too difficult most times to ride through.  In this case I take advantage of one of the benefits of being a cyclist, and I become a pedestrian to get through the intersection.  But always remember that a bike is a vehicle on the road and by law we are allowed to take the lane.