Normally there won’t be any signals in the ROUNDABOUTS. The concept of the ROUNDABOUT is to facilitate direction change for the vehicles if required and it shall be mostly controlled without any signals. It works fine and smooth if you have comparatively equal amount of traffic from all the four sides ( 3 or 6 sides depends on the size and no: of exits in the ROUNDABOUT ). The worst thing that can happen is if you have an uneven traffic from different directions and also if you have bad drivers who don’t tend to follow the traffic rules. The only solution for this is to put a signal in the ROUNDABOUT if you don’t have any other choice like changing the ROUNDABOUT to a intersection with signal.
But, putting the YELLOW light blinking is not at all a good or safe practice and there is no justification for that. May me it gives relief to some of them. It is just like putting the HAZARD warning lights in a foggy climate. Though putting HAZARD warning lights makes you more comfortable, yet it is not accepted and it could create more hazards. So we can’t justify these acts just for the reason that some of them feel it comfortable or relived or its giving less traffic congestion.
Couple of the reasons why YELLOW light blinking is not considered as a good or safe practice,
1. In Qatar, we do have people from different part of the world; this YELLOW light blinking will create more confusion for those who come from other countries (even from other GCC countries). This is not a standard practice. In this case, Qatar shall not allow the International License to be used in Qatar.
2. The second thing is that, with the YELLOW lights blinking, you are giving the driver an open option to take a chance. Give the GREEN light for few minutes more rather than partially allowing to go. The time that you spend on the YELLOW shall be split into and give that time either to the RED or GREEN. It makes no difference.
Normally there won’t be any signals in the ROUNDABOUTS. The concept of the ROUNDABOUT is to facilitate direction change for the vehicles if required and it shall be mostly controlled without any signals. It works fine and smooth if you have comparatively equal amount of traffic from all the four sides ( 3 or 6 sides depends on the size and no: of exits in the ROUNDABOUT ). The worst thing that can happen is if you have an uneven traffic from different directions and also if you have bad drivers who don’t tend to follow the traffic rules. The only solution for this is to put a signal in the ROUNDABOUT if you don’t have any other choice like changing the ROUNDABOUT to a intersection with signal.
But, putting the YELLOW light blinking is not at all a good or safe practice and there is no justification for that. May me it gives relief to some of them. It is just like putting the HAZARD warning lights in a foggy climate. Though putting HAZARD warning lights makes you more comfortable, yet it is not accepted and it could create more hazards. So we can’t justify these acts just for the reason that some of them feel it comfortable or relived or its giving less traffic congestion.
Couple of the reasons why YELLOW light blinking is not considered as a good or safe practice,
1. In Qatar, we do have people from different part of the world; this YELLOW light blinking will create more confusion for those who come from other countries (even from other GCC countries). This is not a standard practice. In this case, Qatar shall not allow the International License to be used in Qatar.
2. The second thing is that, with the YELLOW lights blinking, you are giving the driver an open option to take a chance. Give the GREEN light for few minutes more rather than partially allowing to go. The time that you spend on the YELLOW shall be split into and give that time either to the RED or GREEN. It makes no difference.