Right Turn on Red With a Prohibition Sign and a One-Way Trap
You are driving a 24-foot box truck through a Pittsburgh neighborhood at 4:40 p.m., looking for a loading dock on the next street to your right. You reach a signalized intersection showing a steady red ball for your direction. The right-turn lane is separated from the through lanes, and a red-and-white NO TURN ON RED sign is bolted to the mast arm beside the signal head. A pedestrian is waiting on the curb but has not stepped off. The driver behind you taps the horn twice, then edges left as if to go around. Through the windshield you can see the street you want, roughly 90 feet ahead; at its mouth is a square red sign with a white horizontal bar, and the traffic on that street is coming toward you. You are already 20 minutes behind schedule and the dock closes at 5:00.
1. The light is still red and the right-turn lane is clear of vehicles. May you make the turn? Explain what governs the decision and how the pressure in the cab should or should not change it.
Read the worked answer
No. Pennsylvania generally permits a right turn after a full stop on red unless a sign prohibits it, and this intersection is one of the exceptions: the NO TURN ON RED sign removes that permission for the whole time the signal is red. It is a regulatory sign (red and white, rectangular), mounted where it applies to your lane, so it overrides the default rule rather than merely advising you.
The horn and the closing time are not legal facts. A turn now would be a violation, and it would be made blind to the pedestrian on your right and to cross traffic from the left. The correct move is a full stop behind the stop line or crosswalk, a scan of the corner, and waiting for green. If the truck's cab height makes the signal head hard to see, stop short and use the pedestrian signal or the reflection of the light on the pavement rather than creeping forward to look.
2. When the light turns green, you look at the street you intended to enter. What do the signs there mean, and what should you do?
Read the worked answer
The square red sign with a white horizontal bar is DO NOT ENTER, a regulatory sign that forbids entry to that roadway. It is usually paired with WRONG WAY, a red-and-white rectangle placed farther in for drivers already heading the wrong direction. The oncoming headlights confirm what the sign says: the street is one-way against you.
A green light authorizes you to proceed through the intersection, not to enter a roadway you are prohibited from entering. You must pick a different approach to the dock, even if that means calling ahead or arriving late. This is a common failure point on the exam: the signal and the sign are separate instructions, and the more restrictive one wins. Colors carry the same logic elsewhere, red for prohibitions and stop/yield control, yellow for warnings, green for guidance and permitted movement, blue for services, orange for work zones.
3. As you prepare to turn right on green, the pedestrian on the curb shifts weight toward the street. What is your obligation, and how does the truck itself change the answer?
Read the worked answer
A pedestrian standing on the curb has not entered the crosswalk, so the strict duty to yield is not yet triggered, but the duty of care is. Pennsylvania requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, and a person who steps off the curb as you begin the turn is in the crosswalk within a fraction of a second.
In a 24-foot box truck, a person at the right front corner can vanish behind the hood, the mirror housing, or the A-pillar. Treat the waiting pedestrian as a reason to delay the turn until you can see the corner clearly and the person has either stepped back or made eye contact. Do not roll forward to "claim" the space; the truck needs a wider turning path, which brings the rear wheels closer to the curb and to anyone standing there.