yellow boxes...

galah

Hey all,

have an issues that (almost) morally bothers me (it's a bit long, but bear with me...)...

Setup:
Straight road, with traffic lights, and a one-way street merging from the left (in driving direction), and another smaller intersection further down to the right. There's a big fat yellow box painted on the road to allow traffic coming from the first side street to enter the main road, controlled by a traffic light also (it's the Fr Griffin Road section down by the fire station in Galway, if that helps).

Now traffic in the morning is relatively heavy, usually also thanks to people who stop on the main road to let people in from the second side street (the Claddagh road) (which is grand usually, but does cause backups).

I know that you should not drive on to the yellow box if it's not clear, and therefore obstruct traffic. That's grand.

My problem (and I was nastily shouted at by some woman this morning, which I found a bit harsh) is, that when I entered the intersection at green, the box was clear bar two cars, which I thought would move on since traffic was flowing. However, in front of them, someone decided to stop and let a whole barrage of cars onto the main road from the right, so I was stuck in the yellow box. Lights behind me turned red, and the lights for the side street turned green. I was obviously stuck in the yellow box through no real fault of my own - and got a hell of a lot of abuse for it.

Now what would the correct behaviour be? Stay in the box, and somehow let traffic from the side street squeeze in front of you, or clear the box first?

I'm just confused....

Seth Brundle

You answered your own question.
"I know that you should not drive on to the yellow box if it's not clear, and therefore obstruct traffic."
If it comes to a point that you will have to stop then you should move in whatever direction allowed to get off the box.
You were in the wrong!

Stephen

You're not supposed to enter the box unless the other side is clear. I know this is somewhat impractical in flowing traffic but them's the rules.

OldmanMondeo

The traffic was moving until some plank decided to let other car merge. Not the OP fault, he was moving with traffic and could see that the way should have been clear. Had he have stopped at the box Junction, he probably would have been blown by cars behind him.
If it were me I would have put my hand on the horn to get let the bloke up front know to move.

galah

and exactly that's the problem - if there was traffic backed up already, I would not have entered the box - but since traffic was flowing, I assumed (and yes, I know, you shouldn't assume...) the box will be clear...

The box is also very long, so it would be completely silly to keep waiting until the car in front of me has cleared the box (considering it's morning rush hour, and the traffic is already backed up all the way to Salthill...)

Seth Brundle

The rule is plain and simple - don't enter it unless you are sure that you can exit it without stopping (unless you are turning right).
There are boxes like this on the M50. Traffic often ends up stopping in them because the drivers don't anticipate the obvious.

The fact the the plank in front of the OP let someone merge is irrelevant. When the OP entered the box they could not see their stopping place as thhere were other cars there already. The OP didn't anticipate this.

galah

true. In my case, it wasn't that obvious, and I know I should not have been in the box, but had no choice.

However, that still does not solve my question - stay in the box and let the merging traffic in, or move out of the box as fast as I can, thereby "cutting off" the cars that, due to the traffic lights being green, have the right of way???

IrishRover

Sounds like a case of the shoulda-woulda-couldas
You shouldn't have entered the yellow hatched intersection before your exit was clear. If it seems silly to abide by this rule it's only because so many Irish people disregard it. You should treat all junctions like this whether there's yellow hatched markings on the ground or not.

You should never compound one mistake by making another, so in general you shouldn't stay there but move on as soon as it's safe to do so, and yeah this might mean going ahead of the car or cars trying to turn into the box. You'd have to decide what is the safest thing to do at the time though, there's no hard and fast rule that's going to cover this.

Del2005

If you where in the junction you should have cleared it before letting other cars around you, similar to turning right. Drive up close to the car at the other end of the box and people can come on behind you.
Or a cheeky one and not too sure if it would work here, but the offence is stopping in the yellow box. If you just barely move forward all the time you can't be done.

But you shouldn't enter the box till you can see that you can clear it. I've had loads of fun in artics with this, line ahead moves but I can't clear the box and just have to sit there and wait till I can clear the box. The people behind can stay behind and do what they please, as I'm not going into the box to please them.

galah

Thanks you guys!

Dr. Seuss

galah wrote:

and exactly that's the problem - if there was traffic backed up already, I would not have entered the box - but since traffic was flowing, I assumed (and yes, I know, you shouldn't assume...) the box will be clear...

You just answered your own question again. Do you just not get it or something? You're saying "I know I was wrong, but...." - the "but" is irrelevant.

galah

no, the being wrong bit is not the question - the question is about "containing the damage" - that is, what is the most suitable (and correct, all things considered) thing to do after I ended up in the box in the first place (which is wrong, but cannot be changed since I'm in that box)???