John Rowland wrote:
At the junction of Swandon Way and the east end of Smugglers Way, I
believe the traffic engineers have screwed up the signs which you see
when approaching from the east. The left hand lane has its own slip
road for turning left (which isn't relevant). The right hand lane has
its own traffic light with red, amber and green right arrow, and a
blue forced right turn sign beneath. Next to this is a
light for the centre two lanes, which has a normal red-amber-green
with a banned *left* turn sign beneath - I believe this is supposed
to be a red-amber-green forward arrow with blue forward-only arrow
beneath. There is no physical barrier between the right-hand lane and
the other lanes, although the right hand lane tarmac bears a
right-turn arrow and the central lane has a forward arrow.

Aerial phot here
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...2009&encType=1

In the longest traffic light phase, you have a red light over the
force-right turn sign, and a green light above the banned left turn
sign. This means that if you want to turn right, you can either obey
the red light over the forced right turn blue arrow, in which case you
wait - or you can obey the green light over the b
banned-left-turn sign, which means driving down the middle lane,
undertaking the queue of cars waiting to turn right, cutting across
several metres in front of them, and waiting for a gap in the oncoming
traffic and then turning right. It has just occurred to me
that this might cause you to come into conflict with a possible green
man phase for pedestrians crossing Smugglers Way... or might not, but
there are few pedestrians here.

So, is it legal for someone turning right to obey the green light
over the banned left turn sign and ignore the red light over the
forced right turn sign? The fact that you are turning right from a
lane with a forward arrow on the tarmac cannot in itself be illegal,
because junctions with *part-time* right turn bans usually have a
forward arrow painted on the rightmost lane, and you ignore this road
marking whenever you legally turn right. Or could the police nab you
for dangerous driving anyway?

If it's a full green light rather than a green arrow, then regulation
36(1)(d) of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002
says "the green signal shall indicate that vehicular traffic may proceed
beyond the stop line and proceed straight on or to the left or to the
right" (though the no-left-turn sign would override that.)

But this is contradicted by the red light above the right-turn sign.
The signal installation is clearly wrong and should be reported to TfL
Street Management. The green light should be a green arrow.

The police might well stop you if you attempted a right turn from the
middle lane, but you might win the subsequent court case in view of the
badly specified signals.

I believe that the arrows on the carriageway are only advisory. However,
is there a sign in advance of the junction showing the allocation of
lanes, like the one at http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/images/signs172.gif
? Someone told me that these have to be obeyed, but I can't find
anything in the regulations that says so.

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)