Traffic is prohibited to:

Explanation

The blue, green and white cars have no right to move.

The traffic controller has both arms extended sideways. Always read this signal in relation to his body, not to the lines of the street: from his left and right sides, a non-rail vehicle may only go straight ahead and turn right; from his chest side and from behind his back, movement is prohibited for all vehicles.

Now read the scene with that rule. The controller's chest faces the white car coming from below, so that car must stop. The green car arrives from above, from behind his back, and it too is prohibited. The blue van, the red car and the yellow taxi all three come from the controller's sides and are in principle permitted, but only to go straight and turn right. The blue van has switched on its left indicator; a left turn is precisely the movement this signal has not left open, so the van is prohibited too. The red car behind it has signalled right and the yellow taxi is going straight, so both pass.

Worth memorising: in a controller's signal, the direction of movement is as decisive as the vehicle's position. Two cars can be in one lane one behind the other, with one permitted and the other prohibited, purely because of the indicator they have switched on. The safety reason is clear too: a left turn cuts across the paths of all the other flows at the junction, and the controller has deliberately created with his body a low-conflict phase in which nobody cuts across the width of the junction.

• This wrongly counts the red car as prohibited; that car comes from the controller's side and has signalled right, which is exactly the movement this signal permits. • This prohibits the yellow taxi, which is passing straight from the controller's side, and instead leaves out the green car coming from behind the controller's back.

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