"Terry Harper" wrote in message
...
"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...
In article , Roland Perry
writes
Box junctions. These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road
(see Other road markings section). 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.

It seems to me that this advice is rather naive, because it assumes
that
the only impediment to the "car in front of you that's also waiting to
turn right" is the flow of oncoming traffic - which will eventually
stop.

The wording appears to have changed. It *was* something like "...
oncoming traffic going ahead or also turning right". In other words,
*one* car can wait on the box to turn right from each direction, but
that's all; the second car in each queue must wait to enter the box,
just as when going straight ahead.

Is this one of those cases where the London habit of turning right
involves
passing off-side to off-side with the other turning traffic, instead of
the
system used everywhere else of passing nearside to nearside? The other
traffic waiting to turn right may be travelling in the opposite direction.

The "approved" method of turning right, as described in the Highway Code and
Roadcraft is to pass offside to offside (ie with the drivers' sides next to
each other) as this gives each driver a clear view of the oncoming traffic
so he can judge when it's safe for him to turn. However it is a classic case
of the safer method also being the less efficient because with most junction
layouts, each car partially blocks the other's path, so both drivers must
move at the same time - or not at all.

Where there is sufficent room, it is more efficient for cars to pass
nearside to nearside, such that neither car blocks the other's path and each
can move independently of the other - but this is only really safe if both
cars can pull forward far enough not to block each other's view of the
oncoming traffic. Some junctions actually have lane markings and arrows
which make it clear that this is what traffic must do.