The Officer's Raised Palm Against a Green Light
At 8:15 am you approach a signalised four-way junction in light rain, intending to turn right across the oncoming lane. Your light is green. The junction is marked with a yellow box that is currently full of queuing cars. A traffic police officer in white gloves is standing in the middle of the junction; as you enter, he raises his right arm with the palm facing you and gives two short whistle blasts. Oncoming traffic has begun to inch forward, a car close behind you sounds its horn and edges right as though to pass, and the pedestrian signal to your left shows a green walking figure. The officer then points at you and waves you back out of the junction. Your front wheel is already past the stop line.
1. State the order of authority between the officer, the light, the pedestrian signal and the road markings, and say what you do in the next five seconds.
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The order is strict: a police officer directing traffic overrides the traffic light, which overrides signs, which override markings. A green light only permits you to proceed if nothing else forbids it, and here the officer does. A raised right arm with the palm towards you is a stop signal, and the two short whistle blasts reinforce it rather than contradict it. So you stop where you are, short of the pedestrian crossing and clear of the pedestrian route, front wheel straight, both feet ready. You watch the officer, not the light and not the horn behind you. The green walking figure confirms that people may be crossing where you would otherwise creep forward. The car behind is wrong to edge out; you hold your position with the brake light on, and use a hand signal if it helps him understand that you are stopping.
2. The officer waves you back out of the junction. What is the safe way to comply, given the car close behind?
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Compliance is required, but reversing blind into a car is not. First check both mirrors and take a head check; if the car is within a couple of metres, do not move backwards. Put both feet down, make eye contact in the mirror, and give a clear 'stop' hand signal so the driver understands that you must back up. Once he has actually stopped rather than merely slowed, paddle the machine back a metre at a time with the front wheel straight and the engine in gear but the clutch in, keeping clear of the pedestrian crossing area. If there is genuinely no room, stay still and wait: a rider pinned in the junction is a nuisance, but a rider down under a car is a casualty. When you are clear of the box, stop, and rejoin the flow only when the officer's signal or the light allows it.
3. Suppose the officer then walks away and the signals go dark. How does your approach to the junction change?
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It reverts to an uncontrolled junction, and the rules and the risk both change. Slow before the box, give way to traffic already in the junction and to traffic approaching from your right, and proceed only when the way is genuinely clear rather than when the first car hesitates. Make eye contact with the drivers who matter - the ones whose path crosses yours - because a signal is only useful if the other person has seen it. Keep the headlamp on and use your position in the lane to be visible past the queuing cars rather than hidden behind them. Do not follow another vehicle through on trust; the car ahead may be crossing a lane that is still moving. Treat every dark signal as a junction where nobody knows the order, and ride accordingly.