That's a pretty stupid crossing set up. However, given that there are green lights for left and straight ahead, it is evident that the red light is for people turning right.

As this is London, a lot of people probably go down the left lane on green, then cut across the right lane to turn. I'm not suggesting you do that, but it would be typical behaviour

Just to be clear: if you were caught passing a stop line on a red light, it would be no good arguing that "lots of other people were doing it".

I understand yes, of course. It's not a valid excuse. I was just saying that because I've never been to this junction before and whenever I've encountered a nearside to nearside crossing, you can always continue on when traffic to your left is going too. So seeing the cars in front going ahead I thought it would be fine to do this also which is what I would get to argue if caught. I'm sure the other drivers, who most likely have more experience than my year and a bit of driving, who did what I did, probably knew they should have stopped but carried on because well... London drivers. Myself on the other hand get paranoid if I go 1mph over the speed limit. You can probably tell with how I'm reacting on this thread to start with.

Edited by johnmazda on 06/04/2024 at 19:30

If you cross that stop line to turn right whilst only the ahead and left filters are illuminated you have crossed it on red. What you suggest are "stop" lines further along are simply lines to guide those turning right to pass nearside to nearside.

I have to say that it seems a very strangely designed junction and I don't actually see the point of the two filters. Since there is no "right turn" filter, the only time drivers can proceed to turn right is when the normal green light is illuminated, at the time when everybody else can cross. I can't really see the point of restricting those turning right to just a short period.

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Yes that's what I noticed in my observation too, basically the main green light only turns on for about 5-7 secs which in my mind is not only pointless but potentially dangerous because you could end up being stuck in the middle of that junction by the time it turns red and cars in the other direction start moving. To make it even more bizarre, the crossing on the opposite side has the exact same set up but with no filter lights.

So I agree there's no point to the filter lights, infact they might do more harm than good.

Edited by johnmazda on 06/04/2024 at 20:25