In message , at
22:08:34 on Sun, 6 Nov 2011, Nick Finnigan remarked:
The one I'm thinking of has a small traffic island, but you could turn
left past it; in other words you are saying the silver hatchback here
could immediately turn left (despite being in the wrong lane and facing a
red light): http://tinyurl.com/6kkff8b

It's facing a red light with a green arrow (well, if it wasn't forward of
the line it would be). So I think it's legal.

Taking a step forwards, we can deduce that the light to the right has a
green arrow for turning right - and so the silver hatchback could
certainly have forked right when that was showing.

Not until it shows, of course. The right-turning light (which is
actually a solid green rather than an arrow) is the last of the three
lanes to get the go-ahead, some time after the middle lane gets a green
light.

To complicate matters, the light for the middle lane has a green
forwards arrow, so maybe that's another reason why you couldn't filter
left; but to pick up a point from much earlier in the thread, you won't
know that [it's a forward-only light] if all you can see is a *red*
light (that you believe you can pass in order to filter left).

--
Roland Perry