Right-of-way and intersections
You are inside a roundabout and realize you have just gone past the exit you wanted. What should you do?
- Keep going around until you come back to your exit. Correct answer
- Stop and back up along the roundabout to the exit you missed.
- Turn around and take the short way round, against the flow, to your exit.
Why
A roundabout has one direction and no reverse, and the handbook gives a missed exit the simplest possible answer: continue around until you return to your exit. Backing up is ruled out because you are told not to stop inside a roundabout at all, and going the short way round is ruled out because traffic travels counterclockwise around the central island. So a missed exit costs you one lap and nothing else, while the other two answers put you against the flow. Two habits make the lap easy: signal when you change lanes or exit, and on a multilane roundabout pick your entry lane by where you are going, because that is the lane you will need on the way out.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is Keep going around until you come back to your exit.
The rule behind this one
Right of way in California: who goes first goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
More on right-of-way and intersections
- A funeral procession led by a traffic officer is crossing the intersection ahead of you. What are you required to do?
- A fire engine ahead of you has its siren and flashing lights on. How close behind it may you legally drive?
- A tow truck is stopped on the shoulder ahead of you with its amber warning lights flashing. What does the law require of you?
- A person on a skateboard is crossing the street ahead of you. Under California right-of-way rules, how is that person treated?