The Left Turn That Three Sources Contradict
At 07:40 on a Monday you are driving a 14-seat staff bus south along a two-lane urban road in Abuja, approaching a signalised T-junction. Your drop-off is on the left arm, about 200 metres down it. Three things face you at the junction. On the left kerb stands a circular white sign with a red border and a black left-turn arrow crossed by a red diagonal bar. In the left-turn lane the road is painted with a white left-turn arrow. In the centre of the junction a traffic warden in a reflective jacket is waving every vehicle on your approach into the left arm, apparently to clear a blockage on the main road ahead. Your signal is green. Two passengers stand up and move toward the door, expecting to be dropped on the left arm. The driver behind is tailgating and sounding the horn.
1. Which instruction controls your next action - the sign, the painted arrow, or the warden - and what exactly do you do?
Read the worked answer
The usual order of authority is: an officer or warden controlling traffic, then the traffic signal, then signs, then road markings. The warden's signal therefore outranks both the circular prohibition and the painted arrow, so a left turn is the correct immediate action.
It is not a licence to move blindly. Before committing you should:
- slow and signal left, checking the left arm is actually clear of the blockage the warden is diverting you around;
- keep the passengers seated until the bus is properly stopped, not let them crowd the door on a moving vehicle;
- complete the turn without stopping inside the junction box, so you do not create a second obstruction.
Once past the junction, the warden's authority ends and ordinary signs resume. If the left arm turns out to be blocked or unsafe, stop short and signal your difficulty rather than driving into it.
2. Suppose the warden were absent and the signal green. Which governs - the sign or the painted arrow - and why?
Read the worked answer
The sign governs. A circular sign with a red border is a regulatory prohibition addressed to drivers; a lane arrow is only a marking showing how that lane is used. Where the two conflict:
- the sign carries legal force and is the safer reading of the layout;
- markings are frequently laid before a restriction is introduced, or are worn, patched or obscured, so they are the less reliable record;
- the arrow may simply indicate where traffic already in that lane is channelled further ahead, not that a left turn at this junction is permitted.
So you would treat the junction as a no-left-turn junction, stay in a lane that continues ahead, and re-route to the drop-off. Turning left because 'the paint says so' would be a straightforward breach of a regulatory sign.
3. What changes if the sign carries a supplementary plate reading 'except buses'? What would you check before relying on it?
Read the worked answer
A plate changes the class of vehicle the prohibition applies to. 'Except buses' means the restriction does not bind buses, so a staff bus turning left would be lawful - the sign no longer prohibits you, and the painted arrow and the plate now agree.
Before relying on it, check:
- the exact wording: 'except buses' is not the same as 'except scheduled buses' or 'except buses and taxis';
- whether any time window appears on the plate, and whether 07:40 falls inside it;
- that the vehicle genuinely falls within the class named - a 14-seat staff bus normally does, but a converted van may not.
Even with the plate, the warden's signal still controls the moment-to-moment movement, and you still owe a duty of care to passengers standing in the aisle.