"Stimpy" wrote in message
...

"Robin Cox" wrote in message
...
"Stimpy" wrote in message
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"Richard J." wrote in message
...

In what way does a box junction have the same status as a Stop
sign?
You
don't have to stop *before* crossing them, and stopping *on*
them is
allowed
if you are waiting to turn right across oncoming traffic.

Is it? IWUTI that your exit had to be clear *before* venturing
into
the box

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/16.shtml

=====
Highway Code rule 150:

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.

Cooo... you live and learn :-)

I didn't know about the exemption when you want to turn right either.

Seeing the above Highway Code URL has reminded me of the rule about turning
into a road where pedestrians are crossing. Notice that it says "if they are
already crossing". As a cyclist and a driver, I've seen a lot of pedestrians
treating sideroads as if they were zebra crossings - ie as if they have the
right to hold traffic up indefinitely, rather than waiting until the road is
clear before crossing :-( As a pedestrian, I wouldn't dream of starting to
cross a road (except on a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing) unless it
was safe to do so.

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:24:20 GMT, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

Seeing the above Highway Code URL has reminded me of the rule about turning
into a road where pedestrians are crossing. Notice that it says "if they are
already crossing". As a cyclist and a driver, I've seen a lot of pedestrians
treating sideroads as if they were zebra crossings - ie as if they have the
right to hold traffic up indefinitely, rather than waiting until the road is
clear before crossing :-( As a pedestrian, I wouldn't dream of starting to
cross a road (except on a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing) unless it
was safe to do so.

While many may be doing this just out of stubbornness, it's useful to
know that, in Germany, pedestrians legally have the right of way over
turning cars at this kind of junction. Indeed, the pedestrian lights
turn green when the traffic lights are still green in one direction.

It took some getting used to when travelling back home from Germany by
train via London - after being beeped a few times in London I
remembered the UK's different traffic laws!

Neil

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:24:20 GMT, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

Seeing the above Highway Code URL has reminded me of the rule about
turning
into a road where pedestrians are crossing. Notice that it says "if they
are
already crossing". As a cyclist and a driver, I've seen a lot of
pedestrians
treating sideroads as if they were zebra crossings - ie as if they have
the
right to hold traffic up indefinitely, rather than waiting until the road
is
clear before crossing :-( As a pedestrian, I wouldn't dream of starting
to
cross a road (except on a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing) unless it
was safe to do so.

While many may be doing this just out of stubbornness, it's useful to
know that, in Germany, pedestrians legally have the right of way over
turning cars at this kind of junction. Indeed, the pedestrian lights
turn green when the traffic lights are still green in one direction.

I wonder how Germany's "pedestrians have priority" rule arose? I reckon our
way of doing things is much better: a green light (when you eventually get
it) really does mean "you can go" (either for pedestrians or for vehicles,
at different times) rather than "you can *both* go, but pedestrians have
priority over vehicles".


The junctions that always confuse me are the ones with two sets of lights,
one for traffic going straight on and another for traffic turning right. I'm
so conditioned to stopping at a red light that I find it very difficult to
drive straight ahead through a green light when faced also with the red
light for traffic turning right. What woudl be much better is if all the
right-turn lights were arrows (ie a red arrow, as well as a green arrow) to
make it more clear in the heat of the moment that this light only applies to
traffic that's turning right.

Neil Williams wrote:
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:24:20 GMT, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

Seeing the above Highway Code URL has reminded me of the rule about
turning into a road where pedestrians are crossing. Notice that it
says "if they are already crossing". As a cyclist and a driver, I've
seen a lot of pedestrians treating sideroads as if they were zebra
crossings - ie as if they have the right to hold traffic up
indefinitely, rather than waiting until the road is clear before
crossing :-( As a pedestrian, I wouldn't dream of starting to cross
a road (except on a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing) unless it
was safe to do so.

While many may be doing this just out of stubbornness, it's useful to
know that, in Germany, pedestrians legally have the right of way over
turning cars at this kind of junction. Indeed, the pedestrian lights
turn green when the traffic lights are still green in one direction.

It's the same in France. It saves having a separate pedestrian phase on the
lights, thus improving the traffic capacity of the junction but without
reducing pedestrian facilities. A bit too radical for the UK safety mafia
though.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)