The priority road that bends at the junction
Late on a dry, bright afternoon you are driving your category B1 quadricycle on a two-lane road outside a built-up area at about 60 km/h. The road carries a D-1 priority-road sign, but the plate beneath it shows the thick priority line bending sharply to the right at the next crossroads; your own route runs straight on. Four hundred metres ahead the tarmac is worn and the paint is faint. Three other road users converge on the same junction. A panel van is coming from your right along the road that the priority route turns into. A passenger car approaches head-on with its left indicator flashing, intending to turn into the road behind you. A pedestrian stands on the pavement to your left, a metre back from the kerb, looking at her phone rather than at the traffic. There are no traffic lights and no officer directing traffic. You intend to continue straight ahead through the junction and you have already checked your mirrors.
1. Who must give way to whom at this junction, and where does your vehicle fit into that order? Explain the sign logic, not just the conclusion.
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The D-1 sign gives priority only along the route drawn as the thick line. Because the plate shows that line bending right, your straight-ahead path leaves the priority road and becomes an ordinary road, so the general right-hand rule applies at the point where you cross. That means:
- The van on your right goes first - it is both on your right and still on the priority route, so it wins on either argument.
- You go next, once the van has cleared, because nothing is coming from your right and you are not turning across anyone.
- The oncoming car turning left goes last. A driver turning left must give way to oncoming traffic continuing straight or turning right, so it must wait for you - and it would also have to wait for the van if the van's path crossed its own.
The pedestrian is on the pavement and not at a marked crossing, so she has no priority, but you keep watching her because a phone-distracted pedestrian can step off without looking.
2. The oncoming driver flashes his headlights, waves you through, and starts his turn anyway. Do you go?
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No. Flashing headlights is a warning signal, not a grant of priority, and a hand wave transfers nothing - the oncoming driver cannot give away a right of way he does not have over the van on your right. If you accept the wave and pull out, three things can go wrong at once: the van still has priority, the oncoming car is already moving across your line, and you may stop in the middle of the junction and block it. The correct response is to hold at the give-way position, make eye contact, and wait for a genuine gap. Expect the oncoming driver to complete the manoeuvre regardless of his own wave, since he has already committed his vehicle; the wave is at best a courtesy, at worst a misjudgement of the same rule you are applying.
3. The van stops and flashes you through, but vehicles keep coming behind it from the right and your exit road is already blocked by a queue. What do you do?
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Stay behind the give-way line and do not enter. Two separate rules apply.
First, the wave binds nobody: the van driver speaks only for himself, and the traffic behind him is still moving, still on the priority route, and still on your right. You would be entering on the strength of a signal from a driver who has no authority to stop the queue behind him.
Second, you must not enter a junction you cannot clear. If the road you are heading for is queued, you would come to a standstill across the path of the priority traffic and turn a delay into a blockage - and, if a collision followed, one caused by your entering without a clear exit.
Correct action: wait at the line, keep the wheels straight, watch the queue behind the van and the pedestrian on your left, and move only when you have both a legal gap and somewhere to go on the far side.