Amber Light, Full Yellow Box, Impatient Van
At 7.45 am you are driving east along a four-lane arterial road at 40 km/h with a passenger in the back. You are 20 m from a signalised junction and the light is green. Beyond the stop line is a yellow box junction, and beyond the box the queue is stationary nose-to-tail with no gap for a car. A van is sitting about 6 m behind you, filling your mirror. As you close to 15 m the light turns amber. The van's driver sounds his horn and edges towards the lane line on your left. On the far corner a pedestrian with a phone to her ear waits at the crossing.
1. What is the correct sequence of decisions from 20 m out? Explain what each control - green light, amber light, yellow box - is actually telling you.
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Three separate rules are in play and they do not point the same way unless you read them in order.
- The yellow box is the controlling fact, not the light. You may enter a box junction only if your exit from it is clear. The queue beyond is stationary with no gap, so entering guarantees you stop inside the box - an offence regardless of the signal colour.
- Green does not mean go. Green means the junction is open to you; it does not override the box rule.
- Read it at 20 m, not at 15 m. Seeing the stationary queue, you should already be off the accelerator and down to roughly 25–30 km/h with the brake covered by the time you are 20 m out.
- Amber means stop, unless you are so close that stopping would itself be unsafe. From 25 km/h, a stop in the remaining 9–10 m needs only about 2.5 m/s² - an ordinary, comfortable stop. So: stop before the stop line and stay out of the box.
- Keep the crossing clear. Do not stop on top of the pedestrian crossing markings.
The trap: if you had held 40 km/h to 15 m, stopping would need roughly 9 m/s² - beyond a controlled stop and into skid-and-rear-end territory. The whole point of the approach speed was to keep that option open. The lesson is that the stop is planned at 20 m, not decided at 15 m.
2. The van driver is 6 m behind, sounding his horn and drifting towards your left. The pedestrian is now stepping off the kerb. What do you do, and what do you refuse to do?
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Do:
- Brake earlier and more gently than you otherwise would. A progressive stop with the brake lights on early gives the follower warning and time. A late, harsh stop with 6 m of air behind you is how rear-end collisions happen.
- Hold your lane position. Do not drift left to 'make room' - that puts you towards the van's path and towards the pedestrian.
- Give way to the pedestrian. A pedestrian already on the crossing takes priority; your duty is not to move off the moment the signal changes while someone is still on the road in front of you.
- Let the van go if it commits. If he squeezes past on your left, do not accelerate, do not chase, do not gesticulate. A bad driver ahead of you is safer than a bad driver alongside you.
Refuse:
- Do not enter the box junction to 'keep the traffic flowing'. His horn does not create an exit gap that is not there.
- Do not roll forward over the stop line to create space behind you - you simply become an obstacle inside the box.
- Do not respond to the pressure at all. His impatience is his offence; entering the box would be yours.
3. Suppose you misjudge it and come to a standstill with the rear of the car just inside the yellow box. What are your options, and which is safest?
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Realistically three options:
- Reverse out. This is the instinctive fix and the wrong one. Reversing out of a junction into a queue, with a van 6 m behind and a crossing nearby, creates a new hazard, and driving backwards unnecessarily is itself an offence. You would be converting a stationary error into a moving one.
- Creep forward to join the queue. Usually impossible - the queue is nose-to-tail. If it were possible, moving deeper into the box only lengthens the time you block it.
- Stay put, brake lights on, and wait for the queue to move so you can clear the box. This is the safest answer.
Why: you have already committed the offence the moment you stopped inside the box; nothing you do now uncommits it. What you can still control is whether you add a collision to it. A stationary car with its brake lights on is predictable; a car reversing into a queue at 7.45 am is not.
Accept the consequence - the offence has already happened and a summons is a fair outcome. What you must not do is compound it by manoeuvring with pedestrians and traffic around you.