The driver of which vehicle must give way?

Explanation

The car driver.

The motorcycle on the left of the picture is moving on a plain green, but the red car has the main red facing it and only the green arrow of the additional section is lit for it; the car's indicator also shows a right turn. With this combination, the car has the right to enter the right turn, but before that it must give way to the motorcycle, which is coming on a full green.

The safety logic of this rule refers directly to this very scene. A driver who sees a green arrow unconsciously reads it as "my turn" and fixes his eyes on the turning path, not on the crossing traffic. A motorcycle, too, is narrow, looks small against an urban background and its speed is usually underestimated. The product of these two errors is one of the commonest urban crashes: a car that, while turning, runs down a motorcyclist who had priority. The motorcyclist has no protection, so the severity of injury in this collision is several times greater.

Worth memorising: the arrow of the additional section never confers priority; it merely permits entry into a specific path, and only on condition that the path is clear. Every time in the exam you see a main red together with a green arrow, the answer is almost always "must give way".

• The motorcycle is moving on a main green, without any condition or qualification; someone with a full green is not the one who gives way. The motorcycle's small size takes nothing away from its priority either.

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