Box Junction, Amber Light and a Blocked Hotel Entrance at Midnight
At 23:40 in heavy rain you are carrying a lone passenger to a hotel on a six-lane road in Kowloon. Ahead is a signalised junction with a yellow box junction. The light turns green, but the traffic beyond the junction is queued back across the box. A car behind is tailgating and flashing its headlights, and your passenger says, "Go on, there's plenty of room - I'm late." After you clear the junction the signal turns amber while you are about 15 metres from the stop line at roughly 45 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, with the road surface wet and the tailgater still close behind. Two hundred metres further on, the hotel entrance is coned off for drainage works; the nearest kerbside space is beside a bus stop marked with yellow zig-zag lines and a No Stopping sign.
1. The light is green but the far side of the yellow box junction is blocked. What do you do, and what is the exception to the rule?
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You stay out of the box. A yellow criss-cross box means you must not enter it unless you can clear it without stopping. The signal being green does not create a right to block the junction - a green light permits you to proceed only if the way ahead is clear.
The recognised exception is where you intend to turn right and are prevented from doing so by oncoming traffic or by other vehicles waiting to turn right. That is not this situation; you are going straight on.
Handling the pressure: the tailgater and the passenger's impatience are irrelevant to the rule and are not a defence. Hold short of the box, leave the junction clear for cross traffic, and tell the passenger plainly that entering would block the junction and is an offence. Stopping before the box also protects you from being stranded across it when the cross-traffic phase begins.
2. The signal turns amber when you are 15 metres away at about 45 km/h in the wet. Proceed or stop?
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Proceed, without accelerating.
Work it through: 45 km/h is 12.5 m/s. In dry conditions a typical car needs around 12–14 m of braking distance from that speed before reaction time is counted; on a wet road that stretches considerably. From 15 metres, a full stop would leave you either across the stop line or braking violently.
The rule is that amber means stop unless you are so close to the line that stopping cannot be done safely. Here it cannot. Hard braking would also put the tailgating car into your boot, turning a lawful decision into a collision.
What you do instead: maintain speed or ease off slightly without braking hard, keep the wheel straight, cross the junction and check your mirror for the car behind. Accelerating to "beat" the light is the error to avoid - that turns a justified passage into a red-light offence.
3. The hotel entrance is coned off. Where do you set down, and what do you say to the passenger?
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Do not stop on the bus stop zig-zags or in the No Stopping zone, even briefly, and even with hazards flashing and the passenger insisting. Those markings exist so buses can pull in and so sightlines at the stop are not blocked; stopping there at midnight is still an offence and creates a real hazard for boarding passengers.
Find a lawful alternative: the nearest side street, a legal kerbside space just before or after the restricted section, or the hotel's service entrance if the works allow access. If the passenger must reach the door, set them down at the closest lawful point and let them walk the last few metres.
Then stop the meter at that lawful point - not when you eventually find a space several blocks away, and not after circling. Say clearly: "The hotel driveway is coned off and I can't stop on the bus stop - I'll put you down here, which is the closest legal spot." Offer to help with bags. This is a lawful refusal of an unlawful request, explained courteously, rather than an argument.