Yellow Box Road Junction

Driving into town this afternoon to do some Christmas shopping I saw a blue light ambulance coming up in my rear view mirror. As it was a fairly busy road I indicated, pulled over and went half onto the pavement to clear the road. The car behind me beeped his horn and swerved past me. I assume he hadn’t seen the blue lights because as he overtook me he managed to block the ambulance and bring it almost to a halt. After the ambulance passed I indicated to pull out to rejoin the traffic. Fifteen cars were tailgating the ambulance and not one of them let me out into the traffic. Mind you it’s the same on dual carriageways of course. Everyone stays in the outside lane because they know if they move into the inside lane then no-one will ever let them back out again!

I did wonder if they now require lack of consideration for other road users as part of the driving test. However, that’s not fair on younger drivers; it is all ages that seem lack even basic consideration. I have checked that it is still in the Highway Code that you stop at Red Traffic lights since it seems to average at least two cars through on red these days. Turning right at lights without a right filter light is almost impossible as by the time the last car has gone past that went straight over on red then the other lights are already green. Try to pull out of a side street to join a main road, even if the traffic on the main road is at walking pace it is a rare driver who lets you out. Many drivers will close up the gaps as tight as they can, in what I can only assume to be a deliberate effort to not let anyone in. When you’re in a stream of traffic and you see up ahead a car trying to turn right across the flow it’s a matter of a few seconds to ease the accelerator, open a gap and let them cross, but no-one does.

Does anyone remember the road safety adverts about Yellow Box Junctions? These are designed to keep traffic flowing and as they used to say on the adverts “Yellow box junctions make everyone do what good drivers have been doing for years”

I have tried to explain to people that maybe if they treated every junction like a yellow box and showed a little consideration for others then they might get some consideration in return. This concept seems beyond most people once they get behind the wheel of a car. It’s like the answer to traffic congestion is very simple, Stop everyone else from driving, congestion is definitely caused by “other people’s cars”