Which driver has the priority right of driving?

Explanation

The passenger car driver.

The light facing the passenger car has lit the green lens of the main section, and in the additional section the green left-turn arrow is lit as well; that is, this driver's path is completely open and he enters the junction on a main green. On the left of the picture, the bus is standing behind the stop line and the light for that direction is red.

The governing rule is clear: only the green signal of the main section grants a full right of passage. A driver whose main light is red — even if a green arrow in the additional section permits him to turn — gains no priority and is obliged to give way to all vehicles coming from other directions. Permission to move and priority are not the same thing; that one sentence is the key to most signal questions.

The safety logic of this distinction is simple: if moving on an arrow accompanied by red were counted as equal to green, two crossing flows would enter the junction simultaneously, each thinking "my light is green", and the result would be an angled collision in the middle of the junction — the crash that, because the blow lands on the side of the car, does the greatest harm to the occupant.

The exam trap in this question is the size of the vehicle. The bus is bigger and heavier and carries public passengers, but none of that creates any advantage in the priority rules. The only real exception is an emergency vehicle with its beacon and siren on, and there is no sign of one in this picture.

• The bus is standing near the junction and its size creates the feeling that the way must be cleared for it, but the light for its direction is red; neither the dimensions of a vehicle nor its public character creates priority.

Sources and content coverage · Report a content error