The arrows on the green signal of the traffic light warn

Explanation

Movement to the right is regulated by the light's additional section.

On the green eye of the light in the picture, dark arrows are drawn, and beside that same light an additional section is fitted which at this moment is dark. The rule is: the arrows on a green signal show only the directions permitted by that main green, and any direction not shown in the arrows has been assigned to the additional section. So these arrows warn you that you must take the question of the right turn from the additional section, not from the main green.

The vital point is that an unlit additional section gives no permission. Until its green arrow is lit, movement in that direction is prohibited, even if the main light is green and the way appears clear.

The safety reason for this separation is the isolation of the turning flow from the straight-ahead flow and from pedestrians. A right turn usually passes over a pedestrian crossing, and at busy junctions it must be performed in a separate phase so that a turning car is not caught in a jam of traffic and pedestrians. The exam trap is to read the dark arrows as a "prohibition"; they prohibit nothing, they merely say the decision about that direction is taken elsewhere.

• The arrows on the green do not prohibit the right turn permanently; they simply hand it over to the command of the additional section, and when that section's green arrow lights, the turn becomes permitted.

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