Even the most skilled drivers can be confused about the right of way rule. Here’s what the highway code says.
Right of way on the road can cause a lot of confusion, even among the most expert. Often at an intersection, we see drivers unsure of what to do and who has the right of way. A good review of traffic rules, including priority rights, can therefore prove very beneficial for everyone.
There are several priority signs and signals that all drivers are familiar with. The “stop” sign means that you must stop and give way. On a road with a triangle-shaped sign, the sign indicates that you must yield to all vehicles, coming from the left or right. That’s the easy part.
But what happens at an intersection if no sign is present? The theory says that the first vehicle to leave is the one with the free right, then the others who, in turn, have the free right. But sometimes it’s more complicated than that, as in this example:
In this case, the yellow car moves up to the red car and lets it pass. The red car passes before the yellow car first, then drives up to the blue car and lets it pass. The blue car shifts into third and finally the red car moves forward and finishes at the last turn. So this happens in 4 steps as shown in the image below.
And what happens if there are 4 vehicles in the intersection? Here it gets complicated since everyone has someone on their right. In this case, the simplest thing is to remain courteous and let the first car that arrives pass. Then, the theory is that right priority applies again since a vehicle can pass.
But be careful because it often happens that when drivers have let the first arrival pass, they expect that the next one to pass will be the second arrival even if he does not have priority. In these situations, it is better to speak with signs, to remain calm. Because no one wants to end up in the garage because of a priority issue!
