Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)
  • A question about traffic lights
  • ebygomm
    Free Member

    Are there ever junctions in the UK where a green light only (not a green arrow) gives you right of way over oncoming traffic when making a right turn?

    ads678
    Full Member

    Not unless the oncoming traffic is on a red light, I wouldn’t have thought.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    No

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    what cars are the 2 people driving ?

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Yes. One about half a mile from my house.

    There are lots if anomalies on roads that don’t comply with the laws per se, I’m assuming tj is saying no as there isn’t such a thing in the Highway Code, as opposed to having actually used every road in the country.

    I recall someone on here getting it tight for asking about 70 signs, folks saying there wasn’t such signs, there’s about a dozen on the M8 through Glasgow, as well as at least 2 exits off the outside lane…..

    Edit, there’s another one about a mile away into town too, just came to me.

    fisha
    Free Member

    How would you know whether your non-arrowed green light had priority over the other vehicles on the road? Would it be signposted in some way?

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    It’s to do with the painted lines on the road. You don’t stop at a red light, you stop at the stop line, there is no reason at all a painted stop line can’t be followed immediately by a give way line, no right turn options local to me but several left turn ones.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    How would you know whether your non-arrowed green light had priority over the other vehicles on the road? Would it be signposted in some way?

    Not too far from you Fisha, one in prestwick, one right between here and Ayr. No signs to say priorities on either.

    WillH
    Full Member

    Nobeer: How do the people coming the other way know that they have to give way to you? What colour light are they seeing on their approach?

    Do you mean that you can filter-turn right across oncoming traffic (when there’s a safe gap, i.e. you are giving way)?

    ads678
    Full Member

    Do people actually use the junction that way or do right turners naturally wait for a gap?

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Nobeer – got a google streetview link for that? I’d be interested to see it

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    i have several near me where you have to queue on the yellow hatchings that your not supposed to go on – to trigger the turn right sequence on the lights otherwise they treat the right hand turn as doesnt exist . very annoying when you get law abiding outsiders who wont go onto the hatchings.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Linking from this iPad isn’t happening tj, shawfarm road heading east, turning right into shaw road. Canny mind the name of the roads in Ayr.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    Not that I can think of one, but I propose a Red + 2 rule.. we already have a Red + 1.. so just extend that to let another car through on Red too.. 🙄

    tjagain
    Full Member

    You are allowed on the yellow hatchings if waiting to turn right
    Box junctions.

    WillH
    Full Member

    trail_rat – that sounds like the stop line loop is knackered, and the advance loop (which sits beyond the stop line) is demanding the right turn phase instead. Normally it would just cause the opposing movement to stay red a few seconds longer to allow the right turners ‘trapped’ within the intersection to clear.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    This one no beer? the right turn lane does not have priority over traffic coming towards yo surely?

    https://goo.gl/maps/iCShzN3rHUt

    Cougar
    Full Member

    highway code » ]These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road (see ‘Road markings’). You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear. However, you may enter the box and wait when you want to turn right, and are only stopped from doing so by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right. At signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter the box unless you can cross over it completely without

    The way I think of it is, with a box junction the rule is that you cannot enter unless your exit is clear. If you’re turning right, typically your exit is clear, you just can’t get to it yet because of oncoming traffic.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    the right turn lane does not have priority over traffic coming towards yo surely?

    I would concur.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I agree with tj – there is certainly no indication there that you have priority when turning right, therefore you don’t.

    ads678
    Full Member

    The only way you get priority on that junction is if the light senquence is different both ways.

    WillH
    Full Member

    Nobeerinthefridge – Member
    Linking from this iPad isn’t happening tj, shawfarm road heading east, turning right into shaw road. Canny mind the name of the roads in Ayr.

    *edited to correct beer-induced errors…*

    If it’s the one TJ has kindly linked to above, based on the various streetviews available, then heading east on Shawfarm at the second stop line (it’s an off-set crossroads) you will face (barring ambers) either a red light (which should be self-explanatory) or a green ahead arrow and a red roundel, or a green roundel (possibly with the green ahead arrow also lit).

    The green arrow/red roundel combo means you can go straight ahead but must not make any other movements, and since the only other option is to turn right, effectively means you can’t turn right.

    The green roundel, with or without the green arrow, means you can go straight ahead or turn right. But, if turning right, you are filter turning, i.e. have to give way to oncoming traffic.

    aracer
    Free Member

    If you sit here https://goo.gl/maps/SXSKx4JAjdD2 and spin around you can see the light combo when the green ahead arrow is lit.

    As you can see in tj’s original link, you just get a green roundel. It appears that when that is showing all other directions have red lights, but there is no way of knowing that for sure therefore you don’t have priority, you can simply make the turn because there is no other traffic in the junction. TBH a right turn arrow (which would show together with the straight on arrow) would make everything a lot clearer if that is the intention.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    How would you know whether your non-arrowed green light had priority over the other vehicles on the road? Would it be signposted in some way?

    [quote]
    Not too far from you Fisha, one in prestwick, one right between here and Ayr. No signs to say priorities on either.[/quote]

    In the case of that prestwick one it looks like you’ve got a filter for straight on as well as a regular light. So right turning traffic is held on red when traffic coming the other way is on green. You can assume from that arrangement that once the main light is lit the oncoming traffic is on red – but it might not be the case- the filter arrangement might be to do with phasing pedestrian crossings rather than oncoming cars. (not that theres pedestrian lights in this instance)

    Theres quite a few instance where the phasing of lights is such that on coming traffic is held on red so right turning traffic is able to turn happily without a filter but theres nothing evident to tell you that other than the on coming cars stopping.

    …… not that theres much call for traffic lights on that road to pretty much nowhere 🙂

    WillH
    Full Member

    correct, see my not-so-sneaky edit…

    poly
    Free Member

    Nobeer, technically the right hand slip roads on the m8 are not RH slips either. They are 4 lane (IIRC) slips on the left, with 1 lane continuing on the right. Very soon after that split the 1 lane ends.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Interesting. Is it a brick wall or a cliff?

    houndlegs
    Free Member

    There’s a yellow box junction near me, that go’es around a corner. You have no idea if the exit is clear until you are on the box and turning the corner. I’ve been sat in the middle of it quite a few times.
    There’s also a set of traffic lights that seem to have developed a mind of there own. Straight road with a right turn, lights go green, cars going straight can go, cars waiting to turn right pull forward to another junction and wait for a green arrow, cars coming toward you stop for their red, green arrow comes on and off you go. But now, you pull up to forward junction to wait for green arrow, and half the time it goes back red, and gives a green to the traffic on your right, who can’t pull out cos your sat in the middle of the junction. Its a bit of a lottery, with a lot of beeping horns sometimes.

    ebygomm
    Free Member

    The young driver who pulled out of a right hand filter lane across my path thought that green meant go and no requirement to give way (or look!). I was curious if this was ever the case.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    In the absence of signs / lights saying so, I’d say no.

    Easy mistake to make for a young driver. Green light, off we go… oh shit! I remember doing it myself when I’d recently passed my test, not a mistake you tend to repeat though!

    ebygomm
    Free Member

    Even if I have a green filter arrow, I tend to check that oncoming traffic has actually stopped so it amazes me that she just pulled across.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Even if I have a green filter arrow, I tend to check that oncoming traffic has actually stopped

    I do that as a matter of course at lights. Confirmation bias perhaps but the number of people who run the lights after they’ve turned red seems to have increased sharply of late.

    it amazes me that she just pulled across.

    Probably messaging on Facebook at the time.

    eat_more_cheese
    Free Member

    That one on Shawfarm road that nobeer is referring to has 2 greens-an arrow to signal straight ahead (LH side of the light) and a standard green light to allow right turners to proceed. When that is green the opposite direction is red giving them the ROW. And yes, lots of folk still give way to traffic approaching the red from the opposite direction.
    It’s quite a common light system up here to allow people turning left from the side road (seen on right in pic)

    poly
    Free Member

    Aracer, quite often a wall of stationary traffic! more properly I should have said it stops being a motorway.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Hardly surprising – because as discussed above it’s not clear from the lights that the other direction is on red, and the only reason the right turning traffic can go is because the oncoming traffic is stopped, not because it has ROW. Not at all unreasonable to give way.

    I don’t understand why they don’t make it more clear and explicit by using a right turn green arrow (TBH I’m not quite sure on that junction why right turning has to be prohibited rather than the standard give way – which would then allow the standard green roundel and separate right turn arrow).

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