What should be done in this situation?

Explanation

Enter the junction, give priority to the oncoming car inside the junction, and then complete the left turn.

The light facing you is green, you have signalled left and the green left arrow is lit on the instrument panel. The purple car opposite is coming straight. Green means "permission to enter the junction", not "permission to cross the oncoming flow": you must enter the junction, move forward to the point where the paths meet, wait there with your wheels straight, and complete the turn once the oncoming flow has cleared.

Why is waiting behind the stop line wrong? Because the stop line determines your duty in relation to a red light and a stop sign, not in relation to a green light. Standing behind it on green locks up the cars behind you, which have the same green, creates a risk of being hit from behind, and means that only one or two cars can turn left in each light cycle.

Worth memorising: if the light turns red after you have lawfully entered the junction, you have the right — and the duty — to leave the junction; the drivers who have just received green must let you exit first. That is why entering the junction and waiting inside it is both lawful and safe.

The exam trap is the apparently cautious option. In an exam, any option that says "I will wait" is not necessarily right; the criterion is the rule, not a feeling of caution.

• Staying behind the "stop line" looks cautious, but that line has meaning for a red light and a stop sign; on green, stopping behind it halts the flow behind you and destroys the junction's capacity. • "Go first" means ignoring a car coming straight from the opposite direction; a left turn never takes precedence over the straight movement of the oncoming flow.

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