Is it allowed to make a stop at a designated place?

Explanation

Yes; this sign prohibits only parking, not stopping.

The sign on the right is a blue circle with a red border and one diagonal line: "no parking". Beneath it a supplementary plate with the figure 50 m is fitted, defining the length of the sign's zone of effect forward from where it is installed.

The whole answer turns on the difference between two terms. Stopping means deliberately halting a vehicle for up to 5 minutes, or longer if that is needed to pick up or set down occupants or to load and unload. Parking means a halt of more than 5 minutes unconnected with boarding, alighting or loading. The sign in this picture closes off only the second category. In the photograph, exactly what remains permitted is happening: a white car has pulled up at the kerb and a passenger is getting out.

The safety logic of the rule: a vehicle left at the kerb for hours reduces the usable width of the carriageway, blocks the view of drivers and pedestrians, and forces others into the adjacent lane or even into the opposing carriageway. A brief stop, with the driver sitting behind the wheel and able to move off at any moment, does not create that hazard; that is why the legislator has not prohibited it.

Worth memorising: a red cross = "no stopping" and stricter; a single diagonal line = "no parking" and milder. The exam trap is that the candidate treats every struck-through blue circle as an absolute prohibition.

• Because the sign is struck through and looks like a "prohibition", the answer "no" seems natural; but a single diagonal line closes only parking, and stopping — including the setting down of a passenger, which is happening in the picture — remains permitted.

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