Unsigned crossroads, a bus pulling out and a left-turner
You are driving a petrol hatchback in a Dutch town on a road limited to 50 km/h. It is 17:40 on a wet November afternoon; the asphalt is greasy after light drizzle and the outside temperature reads 7 °C. You approach a crossroads of two equal residential streets. There are no signs, no traffic lights and no road markings other than a centre line. You intend to continue straight on. A delivery van is approaching from the street on your right at about 40 km/h. From the opposite direction a car approaches with its left indicator flashing, apparently to turn into the street you have just left. Forty metres ahead of you, before the junction, a city bus has stopped at a marked bus stop and now indicates to pull back into your lane. Your speed is 45 km/h and a car is following 15 m behind you.
1. List the road users you must give way to before you reach the far side of the junction, in the order you must deal with them, and name the rule behind each.
Read the worked answer
The order matters because each obligation begins at a different point on the road:
- The bus. Inside the built-up area a driver must give a bus leaving a marked bus stop the opportunity to pull out once it indicates. It is also physically in front of you, so it comes first. Because the surface is greasy and the car behind is only 15 m back at 45 km/h, lift off early and let the speed fall rather than braking late onto a wet junction.
- The van from the right. At an unsigned junction between two equal roads the right-before-left rule applies. The van has priority over you even though your road looks like the through road and you are going straight on. Confirm what it is actually doing before you commit.
- The oncoming car turning left. It crosses your path, so as turning traffic it must give way to you as oncoming traffic continuing straight. Do not take that for granted: watch its speed and wheel angle.
Practical point: do not creep over the stop position while waiting for the van. You would block the left-turner and lose your own escape space.
2. The van driver slows and waves you through. How do you respond, and what are you checking?
Read the worked answer
A wave transfers no right of way, and it only communicates with you. Treat it as information, not as permission.
- The van may be waving you into the path of something it cannot see or has not looked for: a scooter filtering past it, a cyclist on the near side, a pedestrian crossing behind it.
- The driver may change their mind and move off, or the vehicle behind the van may overtake into the gap.
- The left-turning car and the traffic behind you are not party to the gesture and will behave as if the normal order applies.
So: reduce to walking pace, make eye contact if possible, re-check the left-turner, your near side and your mirrors, and only move if you can stop within the distance you can see to be clear. If the situation stays ambiguous, wait. The cost of waiting is a few seconds; the cost of a wrong guess at a wet junction is a collision that your insurer and a court will attribute to you, because the van had priority and you crossed.
3. A kilometre later, after passing the sign that ends the built-up area, another bus is standing at a stop with its indicator on. Are you obliged to let it out?
Read the worked answer
No, not in law. The duty to give a bus free passage when it leaves a stop is tied to stops inside the built-up area. Once you have passed the place-name sign that ends the built-up area, that duty falls away and ordinary rules apply: the bus must wait for a safe gap, and you keep your priority.
The safe answer is not identical to the legal answer. A bus pulling out is long, slow and full of standing passengers; forcing your priority costs you a few seconds and buys you a large vehicle manoeuvring close to your flank on a road where overtaking it will be awkward. If the gap is there, easing off and letting it go is reasonable. What you should not do is stop abruptly in a 80 km/h road to be polite, because the traffic behind you is not expecting it. Decide early, signal your intention with your speed, and be consistent.