I personally think that when entering/exiting a roundabout with 2 lanes on approach would be incredibly dangerous to stop and let a pedestrian cross. Your vehicle creates a massive blindspot and pedestrians may not recognise that there are 2 lanes of traffic. All it takes is a vehicle unaware of the pedestrian who you stopped to allow cross...

As an HGV driver, I completely agree with your comments about smart motorways. Every single day I see so many vehicles bunched up doing 70mph+... I don't think people realise how quickly it can all go wrong.

Here in the Netherlands, if pedestrians have priority on a roundabout, there will be a zebra crossing and yield markings for cars. If those aren't there, pedestrians have to wait. Honestly, seeing the rule change you guys had without accompanying adjustments to the infrastructure, I got very confused. I've never really seen pedestrian priority at a two lane roundabout either over here, it just seems so dangerous.

Am i missing something ? How does giving pedestrians priority at the exit of roundabouts ( single lane or double ) make anything safer ? there's many ways in which it is certainly less safe than before these rules came in but i cannot think of a single reason why this is safer .i've seen plenty of near misses since these rules came in where previously there wouldnt have been . But ive never drove past a waiting pedestrian and thought "wow them standing there waiting for a safe time to cross is lethal someone needs to do something about this".

Roundabouts appear to confuse enough people as it is without adding vehicles suddenly stopping ahead of them.

As a pedestrian and bearing the top priority for crossing at a roundabout, I am always on the lookout for motorists who have not spotted me and always wait until the traffic has cleared and it is safe to cross.

I am a professional driver and ive had some ADI training in the past, but I still stand by my comment that the give way on the exit of busy roundabouts is dangerous. You can control traffic behind to a certain degree, but the state of people's driving nowadays is just shocking and far too many times people will take risks and will just over take in a rush to get in front. I deal with this kind of 'beat the bus' mentality every day. Few years ago i slowed in plenty of time in a large bus at a Zebra crossing, for a man and his two young children to cross. i spotted in my driver mirror a car behind who as usual sees a stopped bus and think oh i HAVE to overtake!!! i quickly got on horn and screamed at the guy to stop as he was in front of me already on the crossing, he did and the car overtook me on the Zebra crossing at speed!! the man was screaming abuse at the car driver and thanked me for saving him and his daughters!! everyday people see a stopped bus and try to over take then spot traffic in front of me and do the whole slowly pulling back in behind in shame!!!
A new driver with P plates jumped a red light light and went right in front of my bus just yesterday, with the look through the drivers window at me as 'what's the problem???' well those lights have a red light jump camera, so that was captured no doubt, but if people can't even follow simple driving techniques like this, then we have no hope of people doing this correctly or safely! all i see is pedestrians getting hurt am afraid.

As a pedestrian, I really dislike the roundabout priority. I'm sure not everyone will see eye to eye, but I feel that roundabouts are too dangerous to have pedestrian priority; as you said, roundabouts are there to maintain and promote traffic flow, and generally don't have too much thought put in for pedestrians. Furthermore, I never know if the driver knows about the new "rules", or if any fellow pedestrians know either, and I don't want to pressure someone into stopping, or crossing when they are not comfortable, or unsure about the rules. I usually avoided crossing at roundabouts before this change, but now I do not cross at a roundabout at all, due to the uncertainty.
I think people forget that many, if not most, pedestrians are not up to speed with the Highway Code, and so won't know about the priority they have.

I did a driver awareness course some years ago and I think it's safe to say that over 50% of the people there didn't even know the national speed limits. I think we're over estimating the ability of the general driving public to grasp something like this.

I have been doing my best to follow the new guidelines regarding pedestrians crossing at roundabouts. But what I find is when a pedestrian is wishing to cross at my exit for a roundabout and even when I am slowing gradually and making it as obvious as I can, one of two things generally happens;

1. I get beeped.
2. The pedestrian stands there and doesn’t cross.

It’s far easier in my experience to command traffic to allow pedestrians to cross on the approach to a roundabout.
However, on one occasion I successfully held the traffic to allow an older gentleman to cross, he was very happy and gave a cheery wave as he started to walk across the road, but then in my rear view mirror I spotted some utter buffoon in a van mount the pavement to the left from several cars lengths back and accelerate down the pavement! With me sounding the horn to warn literally everyone the van came to a stop barely a metre from the man! In anger the old boy started shouting and whacking the van with his walking stick!

All I had try to do was the right thing, I left the scene of shouting, traffic carnage, criminal damage and dangerous driving in my mirror and wished I let the old man wait an extra 30 seconds 🤦🏻‍♂️

Very few people, both vehicle drivers or pedestrians, know about this change from annectodal observations.
When driving I notice noone stops for pedestrians crossing unless I have already stopped - and honestly, I always feel quite apprehensive about stopping, especially on a multilane junction. I worry that pedestrian will get hit by a vehicle passing by that isn't paying attention, or the pedestrian assumes that it's safe because I've given way.
I have also noticed that most of the time pedestrians don't even seem to know what to do when I give way per the HWC. Causing hesitation, longer stopping times, and impacted traffic flow.

And as a pedestrian I notice that very, very few drivers actually stop as they should. The amount of people that give way approaching a round-about (as an example) are no more or less than before the change, and I don't think a single person has ever stopped for me crossing coming off a round-about.

We are in a bubble here on this channel as we, for the vast majority, want to improve and recognise the importance of proper driving and following of the HWC. But in reality I would wager that we make up an incredible small minority of road users.

I do fairly often chose to ignore a pedestrian's right of way due to safety, or because I don't think they'll know why I'm stopping. The amount of people I see approach a crossing on their phone, or otherwise not paying attention (because they don't know about their priority) so I chose to ignore and pass.
Yesterday is an example of stopping on the approach to a round-about to let a woman and a couple of chilren cross. A car coming off the round-about saw and stopped to give way, but the build up impacted the flow of the round-about and one van driver even beeped - who proabably deserves some choice words said for their impatience, attitude and disrespect for other people, but I digress.

I can see both sides of the argument. On paper it's a good idea, but only if everyone is on the same page. The trouble is only a very small minority are on that page. The rest are still struggling to read the previous one.

On more than one occasion, I have "given way" to pedestrians at the exit to a roundabout and, presumably, when they see the traffic, it scares the hell out of them, so they walk off and leave a line of stationary traffic in their wake.
Thereby, when things start to move off, most car drivers simply 'floor it,' and make an attempt at the land speed record, giving the driver in front of them, a look of displeasure as they scream past.
In a nut- shell, I think the whole business of giving way to pedestrians, was dreamt up by a NUT-CASE!

A few years ago I was turning right at a roundabout in the evening. As I came around the built-up roundabout I saw an older pedestrian in the road, around 2 steps across a marked crossing. He tried to step back, but it was too far to get out of my way. I was driving slowly (night, blind exit) and had plenty of time to stop for him. Two seconds later I was rear-ended hard enough to push me into the path of the pedestrian, inches behind him. Stopping for pedestrians crossing near roundabouts is not a new problem  but this new rule is a dreadfully poor attempt at trying to get motorists to think about what might be happening in the exit. It is lazy and shows that the transport ministry has no stomach for improving safety.

I drive for a living & I agree, the DVSA have done a terrible job at getting the message out. One way to reach many motorists & pedestrians is to advertise the new rules on the sides, rear & insides of buses, most buses have adverts on them, and sometimes when you sat in traffic behind a bus you read the advert on the back.

As someone studying road design, The biggest issue is that there is no visual aid for drivers.
They should have made the rules cleared by only in newer designs and slowly convert older designs to the new designs which makes it a gradual transitions for the better.

Pedestrians are more scared to cross is about as simple as I can describe it.

The rule change needs a nation wide awareness campaign so everyone is on the same page. The biggest problem I see right now is wildly different expectations from people.

In Australia you must give way to all pedestrians when turning EXCEPT for roundabouts. Pedestrians have to give way to cars in that case.

As a motorcyclist, I'm really not comfortable coming to a stop on the exit to a reasonably quick roundabout. Like the clip you showed, it would be all too easy to rear ended by someone who is not concentrating where they should be. They're at fault but I'm the one in hospital.

There is a real problem, I would suggest, with roundabouts where there are several lanes on the exit road.  If you are in the left lane, and exiting on the left lane, and you see pedestrians on the left-hand side of the exit road and you decide to slow and stop for them, there is no guarantee that other cars to your right, exiting on the other lanes, will also stop.  This puts the pedestrians in danger, as they may well start to cross when they wee you stop, and not see the other car coming on your right.

You have not even mentioned the most important thing:  the pedestrians have not been told about this rule.  I have had quite a few instances where I have slowed right down to let someone cross, but they stop walking - and so an absurd situation arises!  On another, related, note: I'm sure the Green Cross Code is no longer taught at schools.  So many youngsters don't even look to check whether traffic is coming - they just text/stare at their mobiles while walking obliviously straight out into the road.  20moh zones have exacerbated this problem.