You're approaching an Oregon roundabout. What's the entry rule?
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A.
Accelerate to merge with circulating traffic at speed.
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B.
Traffic entering the roundabout has the right of way over circulating traffic.
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C.
Stop at the entry line, then merge into traffic.
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D.
Yield to traffic inside and exiting the roundabout, then merge during a gap. Correct
The answer is "Yield to traffic inside and exiting the roundabout, then merge during a gap."
Before entering a roundabout, you must yield to traffic already inside the circle as well as to traffic exiting it. Wait for a gap, then merge into the flow and continue counterclockwise to your exit. Oregon roundabouts are yield-controlled at entry, not stop-controlled. Choice C is the trap for drivers who treat a roundabout like a four-way stop; the entry is a yield, and you stop only when there is no gap or a pedestrian is in the crosswalk in your lane.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Accelerate to merge with circulating traffic at speed.
You slow down on approach, look, and yield; you do not accelerate to force your way into circulating traffic. This answer borrows the freeway on-ramp habit of matching mainline speed before merging, which does not apply at a yield-controlled circle.
B. Traffic entering the roundabout has the right of way over circulating traffic.
The opposite is true: traffic already inside the roundabout has priority over vehicles waiting at the entry. This answer reverses the yield direction, treating the entering driver as the through driver the way a through-road driver has priority at a T-intersection.
C. Stop at the entry line, then merge into traffic.
Roundabout entries are yield-controlled, not stop-controlled. You stop only when needed: no gap in circulating traffic, or a pedestrian in the crosswalk in your lane. This answer applies the four-way-stop habit to an Oregon roundabout, which the manual controls with a yield at the entry rather than a required stop.
This question tests your knowledge of Right of Way in Oregon. Source: Oregon Driver Manual, "Roundabouts," p.43..
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