Yellow Box Junctions - are they practical?

[Mikefromlondon]

we all need to get from A - B, all of us have the need to get somewhere, not just busses and taxis and individuals too, some of them could be Doctors and Nurses trying to get to their jobs, I have often found that you cannot enter a yellow box junction as your exit is not clear, some councils have now started to use these boxes to generate revenue, Newham Council is one greedy bunch of ankers.

Yes it is all right to just say you should not enter when your exit is not clear, but i have found there are times when due to traffic lights, you cannot proceed when your lights are green but because your exit was not clear, so by the time your exit starts to get clear your lights go red and now you could find yourself sitting there forever!

How many sets of light changes will you need before you decide enough is enough and you cannot afford to sit there and must proceed despite knowing that you will be penalised for entering the yellow box, if you were earning half a grand a day, you might, but what of those who can't make end meet on their meager wages?

Please tell us your experiences and had you been caught and fined by cash cow councils?
what do you suggest that we can all help move traffic flow fairly, as all of us want to get somewhere and not just sit in one spot unable to move due to this impractical rule.



Or do you think we should carry a camping gear with us and hike a tent behind our car when we find we are in this a no win situation, and open a can of chilled drink and enjoy hectic life full of stress and rules!

 

[Ian H]

My daughter was fined for driving through a couple of meters of bus lane. She cut into the lane slightly early so the traffic in the right lane could get on its way.

Hardly the crime of the century.

 

[DaveHerns]

Yellow box junctions are designed to keep junctions clear for other road users. I can accept this and I got fined in West London years ago.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Yes but it is an ill thought design or plan that does not work fairly sometimes especially in conjunction with traffic light sequence. One could be stuck for many minutes if not hours at Green Traffic lights simply because he or she cannot enter a yellow box as the exit is not clear.

Also the bus lane contravention occurs when a fellow driver ahead of you wants to turn right and you have to wait behind him and are not allowed to enter a bus lane to undertake him even if the bus lane is clear and no bus approaching, the rules should be modified to allow for such eventualities.

 

[Brigadier]

Yes but it is an ill thought design or plan that does not work fairly sometimes especially in conjunction with traffic light sequence. One could be stuck for many minutes if not hours at Green Traffic lights simply because he or she cannot enter a yellow box as the exit is not clear.

Also the bus lane contravention occurs when a fellow driver ahead of you wants to turn right and you have to wait behind him and are not allowed to enter a bus lane to undertake him even if the bus lane is clear and no bus approaching, the rules should be modified to allow for such eventualities.

Reminds me of a tale from an irish European Tour golf event some years ago....

(Carparking for such events is often on neighbouring golf course / common land or the like).

At the end of a day's play (and after getting nowhere, in a queue of other cars trying to get out of the parking area), an irate motorist wound down his window, and bawled at one of the Garda who was on traffic-directing duty "What's the f####n' problem?!!!"

To which the Garda (in a gentle, ROI tone) calmly replied, "Too many f####n' cars, Sorr."


I do hope it really happened

 

[securespark]

There is a YBJ on the entrance to the Junction 1 roundabout on the M60 from Brinksway. If you followed the rules at peak times, you would never move.

To get where you are going you have to enter the junction when your exit is blocked.

I have been doing it ever since the box junction was painted but never got caught. I don't know if anyone else has been caught, but if it were me, I would ask the authorities just what to do in that situation and watch them squirm.

 

[Brigadier]

There is a YBJ on the entrance to the Junction 1 roundabout on the M60 from Brinksway. If you followed the rules at peak times, you would never move.

.

If you all follow the rules, of course you will move. Because some choose not to, this baggers it up for those that do.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Blah Blah Blah

Guess what, life isn't perfect, get over it.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Guess what, life isn't perfect, get over it.

I know it isn't, so are you saying that if you must drive, then you must pay fines to enter a YB to get to your destination. So if you did break this rule each day coming back from work, that would be £500 for 5 working days during rush hour. You must be earning good money Freddy.
Remember i am not talking of all the YBJ, most are OK, you only need to wait a little while, some you just cannot get in when the traffic is heavy. Today, someone behind me tooted as I would not go into one despite the lights were green, I stayed put until there was sufficient space to clear the box at the other end.

I am shortlisting YBJ some which are really like trap, and you have absolutely no choice but to enter or else you would need to camp by the road side until traffic eases up. Our Council has made it clear that they are going to impose fines on those who enter a YBJ when their exit is not clear, but some junctions the exit never gets cleared since as soon as it gets cleared traffic further up the junction flows in the cleared gap, leaves you stranded.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Allow more time for your journey. Job done.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Allow more time for your journey. Job done.

That is what i said Freddy, I will take along my folding picnic table and folding chairs, and enjoy a hot cup of tea from my thermos flask and a sandwich! I like to see how many motorist revolt against certain impractical junctions, one where there are 5 yellow boxes and two Double lanes bottle neck into one single lane.

In total there are 13 lanes feeding traffic into this round about, and only 5 leading out of it! see it for your self, The major routes out of it are bottle necked into single file, and to make it even worst there is a time controlled pedestrian operated traffic light crossing , so each time a pedestrian wants to cross, there is a minimum cycling time, if it was just a zebra crossing that would help reduce substantial bottle necking as the traffic would flow better since as soon as a pedestrian has crossed, traffic would start moving again, but one must wait for set time period before lights change to green again. Real heavy bottle necking during rush hours from about 4pm to 7pm, See image Google earth Barking Road A 406 to see the layout.

The google image was taken in 2015, yellow box junctions were not enforced then, as they were impossible to negotiate due to shear volume of rush hour traffic but now CCTV cameras and notices have gone up, our local council magazine has also notified us that as from 16th January they will enforce all yellow junctions throughout the borough, and feel sorry for many motorist who had no choice but to dive in and take a chance and they couldn't cross it entirely, and cameras are looking menacingly pointing downwards looking at car reg plates!

Also just to give you some idea how stressful a journey of 5 miles in rush hour took me 50 minutes! and this is not even Central London but outer London.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You should clearly be in charge of the traffic management,, you seem to be an expert.

 

[blightymam]

The google image was taken in 2015, yellow box junctions were not enforced then,.

Were they not? Or you just talking at this junction? I got done on Edgeware Road some years back - morning traffic and I entered a box junction, only to be held up by an ambulance stopping all traffic. Yep, the lights changed before anyone got going again and I got a fine through the post. Still, as annoying as it is, that is the rules - how else do they get their monies right?

The one that really irked me was somewhere in Essex on a job, the car in front of me wanted to turn right but the other side was blocked and nobody would let the fella through. Mass back up behind us, so I went into the bus lane for 1 car lengths worth (and the cars behind me too) to undertake him, no bus around at the time. Got done for being in a bus lane. I always thought the whole reason for road controls is to keep the traffic moving freely, ha ha. Cher-ching!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

You should clearly be in charge of the traffic management,, you seem to be an expert.

I am not claiming to be an expert, but over the years I have observed a few things where traffic flow has slowed down to a trickle due to umpteen number of traffic lights which at some simple junctions are not even necessary, along with pedestrian crossing cycle which slows it down even further.

I have observed the following, where often when traffic light signals break down and are covered with "out of order" bags, there are hardly any ques formed at those junctions. People drive through carefully negotiating priorities with one another and flow improves significantly, and if there were zebra crossings, pedestrians are always given priority to cross.

Before yellow box enforcement came into force, drivers did avoid yellow boxes or respected the rule when it could function in light traffic conditions, but when the condition changes and rush hour starts, they become almost impossible to negotiate and so everyone broke rules before the enforcement came, in other words, during rush hours everyone who could crawl into one did so, drivers gave each other way to merge, and traffic flowed evenly, from all sides, but now due to enforcement, traffic flow appears to favor some far more than others, and this is where the problem lies. Some roads then become standstill.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It would appear to be a miracle that you somehow made it in to work today in order that you were able to leave and arrive home despite sitting at a standstill.