In this situation stopping to pick up a passenger is

Explanation

It is prohibited in both cases; you have no right to stop either before the sign or after it.

The round blue sign with a red border and a cross is "no stopping", and it differs fundamentally from "no parking": no parking closes off only a prolonged stay and a brief halt to pick up or set down a passenger or goods remains permitted beneath it, whereas the cross sign prohibits any deliberate halting of a vehicle; even the few seconds needed in the picture to pick up that pedestrian at the kerb.

The plate beneath the sign is the key to the answer: an arrow with heads both upwards and downwards means "you are at this moment inside the sign's zone of effect" — the zone continues both behind and ahead of the point of installation. Memorise the three forms of this plate together: an upward arrow means the zone starts here, a downward arrow means it ends here, and a double-headed arrow means you are in the middle of the zone.

The safety reason is clear: on the narrow city street in the picture, with one traffic lane in each direction, a stopped vehicle blocks the whole lane and the drivers behind are forced to swerve suddenly into the opposing lane; at precisely the moment the passenger opens the door on the pavement side. The common exam trap is that the candidate wrongly extends the "picking up a passenger" exception, which belongs to no parking, to no stopping.

• It is tempting because many suppose a sign's zone always begins from the sign onwards; but the double-headed arrow says you are in the middle of the zone, so the prohibition holds after the sign too. • It is the reverse of the same error: it assumes the space before the sign is still free, whereas the downward head of the arrow shows the prohibition began further back.

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