I knew roundabouts were bad news

The last few weeks I've had two closeish interactions with motorists at roundabouts failing to 
give way.  Pursuing another local bee in my bonnet - the unexplained removal of the hoop bike parking racks in Pier street in Altona (anyone know why they have been removed, btw?) I stumbled over and read with much interest the Hobsons Bay Strategic Bicycle Plan.  Fascinating and sobering reading.  The map of where the accidents have happened - lots of blood red spots indicating accident locations  on the map of our local area - certainly makes you think
as you ride along the same roads.  I found the analysis of the bicycle accidents causing injury or death in my local area (5 years up to 2001) particularly attention grabbing.  Large number of crashes between 6-8 am - the cycle commuter rush from our neck of the woods - and most common age group 30-39 - commuters again?  

The bit that really caught my eye was the graph on Traffic Control and the commentary:

"A significantly higher proportion of cyclist crashes in Hobsons Bay occurred at roundabouts
compared to that of all road users in Hobsons Bay and the Melbourne Statistical District average for cyclists. This is likely to be due to the higher than average number of roundabouts on main routes through Hobsons Bay and the fact that cyclists are not well suited to this form of traffic
control."  (p. 30)

Well that's good to know that we are not suited to roundabouts.  A better way to have put it might have been "this form of traffic control is not well suited to cyclists".  

Further into the report, it notes

"A review of bicycle casualty accidents at roundabouts revealed that 70% were right angle
crashes where a cyclist on a roundabout was struck by an entering motor vehicle.
Accordingly, bicycle riders would benefit from an alternative treatment where bicycles can
be kept off the road carriageway at a roundabout." p. 58


I've been wrestling - fruitlessly so far - with VICROAD's Crashstats to see if I can get an update on Hobsons Bay roundabout accidents  from 2001 to now.  Be interesting to see if the next 5 years, after the Strategic Plan, have made 
any difference.  I can't say I can see any sign of "alternative treatment".     The plan suggests a sort of bike path round the outside of the roundabout, which would require the cyclist to give way to everyone coming and going which in the world we are in I doubt will work.  
Most commuter cyclists and the lycra brigade would ignore that sort of set up.  

Hmmmm.  No easy solution that I can see.  Rob's idea of changing driver liability to require motorists to prove they were not in the wrong in a
collision with a cyclistis appealing.  

But the frequency of accidents at roundabouts indicates its something wrong in 
the underlying infrastructure, in the basic design, as well as in the attitude of the people behind
the steering wheels.

Anyway, I for one am adjusting my route to avoid roundabouts wherever possible from now on, and I'm twice as careful going into them.   And I'm going to follow vote4cycling's advice and write to my local member to encourage the commonwealth 
to put some $ into local government for improving cycling infrastructure.