A Damp T-Junction with a Cyclist, a Turning Bus and a Hedge
You are driving a five-seat hatchback with one passenger on a wet evening in late autumn, and you want to turn right out of a minor road onto a single carriageway with a 60 km/h limit. Your approach is marked with a broken white give-way line; there is no stop sign. Visibility to the right is partly blocked by a 2.5 m hedge that ends about 12 m before the junction mouth. From the left, a commuter cyclist is descending towards you at about 25 km/h in a marked cycle lane on your side of the major road; he is roughly 40 m away. From the right, a local bus about 60 m away is indicating left, into the road you are leaving. A van is following the bus at a normal gap. It is dusk, your headlights are on, and the road is damp. The cyclist has a bright front light; the bus is showing its signal continuously.
1. Who has priority here, and what exactly does the broken white line require of you?
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A broken line means give way, not stop, so you are not obliged to halt at the line but you must not enter the major road if it would force anyone on it to change speed or direction. The cyclist is on the major road, and a marked cycle lane is part of the carriageway; a driver turning across a cycle lane gives way to a cyclist going straight. He therefore has priority over you.
The bus is also on the major road and keeps priority while it is on it, but its left indicator is only a statement of intent. It does not transfer priority to you, and a bus turning into a narrow road often needs to swing wide, so its tail may still cross your path after the front has turned. Finally, the hedge limits your view to the right, so 'looked clear' from the line is not the same as a clear view.
2. Using the distances given, decide whether there is an acceptable gap to turn right, and explain the decision.
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Do the arithmetic. The cyclist is 40 m away at about 25 km/h, which is roughly 7 m/s, so he reaches the junction in around 6 seconds. He is descending and the surface is damp, so he cannot be relied on to stop quickly if you misjudge it. Pulling out to turn right and clearing the cycle lane takes perhaps 3 to 4 seconds from a standstill and puts you broadside across his path.
That is too fine a margin. Add the bus: its left turn will occupy the mouth you want to use, and its rear may sweep across your exit. The correct decision is to wait, edge forward only as far as needed to see past the hedge, and go once the cyclist has passed and the bus has committed to its turn and left you room.
3. Describe how you would position, signal and complete the turn with a passenger on board, and what you would do if the bus's tail swings towards you.
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Position just left of the centre line with the wheels straight until the turn, so that a rear impact does not shove you into the opposite lane. Signal before you brake, and keep the signal on until the turn is finished. Check the left mirror and blind spot for a motorcyclist overtaking a slow queue on the minor road, and recheck the cycle lane before the front wheels cross it.
Turn into the nearside lane rather than cutting the corner across the cycle lane. With a passenger aboard and a damp surface, accelerate gently: the front wheels are doing both the steering and the braking. If the bus's tail swings towards you, stop and let it clear rather than trying to squeeze past; a scrape with a bus is a losing argument.