"David Splett" wrote in message
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"Chris" wrote in message
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If you "find yourself stuck in a box junction" I would suggest you aren't
doing it right:
HC.150: "... You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is
clear."

You enter a junction and the lights turn red behind you. Just as this is
happening a string of pedestrians cross right in front of you. You stop to
avoid running them over, and now cannot proceed because traffic is flowing
across you. I would suggest that there can be situations where you can get
stuck in a box junction without having done anything wrong, and I hope
that this is taken in to account with the enforcement.

Likewise: You are following a car on the approach to a box junction at a T
junction with a minor road. You brake to create a gap that's at least as big
as the hatched area. When the car in front has moved far enough ahead of the
junction (on the far side) you set off to occupy the space that he has just
left. In the meantime, a car pulls out from the side road into the space,
leaving you stranded on the junction through no fault of your own.

I can think of several junctions on the Botley Road in Oxford where I've
been stuck for minutes on end because successive cars pull out from the side
road as the traffic ahead moves forwards, and a gap never exists beyond the
junction for me to pull into. I suspect that drivers think that the fact
that I'm waiting on the far side of the junction means that I'm waiting for
them rather than waiting until I can legally enter the hatched area. (It was
while I was waiting at one of these junctions that I witnessed the closest
near-miss that I've ever seen: a cyclist coming up behind me illegally
overtook me on the left and narrowly escaped being hit by an oncoming car
that was quite legitimately turning right across me into the side road.)

I'm in favour of box junction cameras, but they MUST be movie cameras to
show the events that led up to your being on the hatched area, so as to
decide whether you are guilty or not. Simply being caught on the junction,
with no opportunity to prove how you got there, is not sufficient.