Vehicles will drive through the intersection in the following order:

Explanation

The tram and the green car simultaneously, then the yellow car.

The tram and the green car are travelling on one road facing each other and both are going straight; their paths do not cross, so there is no reason for either to wait for the other and they pass through the junction simultaneously. The yellow car comes from the crossing road and its path cuts across both the tram rails and the green car's path.

Two rules stop it. First: at a junction of equal-status roads, the tram has priority over non-rail vehicles, regardless of which side it comes from or which way it goes. Second: the green car is on the yellow car's right and under the right-hand rule the yellow car must give way to it. So yellow is the last vehicle.

The tram's priority is not a matter of taste: a tram weighs tens of tonnes, is locked onto rails and cannot steer round an obstacle, and its stopping distance is several times that of a passenger car. Any order that forces a tram into an emergency stop creates real danger. Worth memorising: "simultaneously" is a perfectly valid answer in these questions; if two vehicles' paths do not cross, one need not queue behind the other. That is precisely the exam trap — the candidate forces a separate number onto all three vehicles.

• This option correctly puts the tram first and for that reason looks convincing, but it brings the yellow car ahead of the green car; whereas green is on yellow's right and yellow must give it priority. • This option puts the tram last, exactly the reverse of the law. At a junction of equal-status roads a tram has priority over non-rail vehicles, and neither car may enter the rails before it.

Sources and content coverage · Report a content error