Safe Speed Forums

Driver wins yellow box challenge
Last updated at 10:28am on 8th November 2006

This is the yellow box junction that has been ruled illegal. A driver who was fined three times in a fortnight and decided to challenge Transport for London has won her case.

Dr Krystyna Fielden was shocked to receive three £100 fines along with CCTV images of her offences after making the same journey home from work in central London for 10 years without incident. She complained to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service that the junction of Green Lanes and the North Circular near Palmers Green was faulty. She said it comprised two separate boxes - with just a car's length between each - and did not conform to official guidelines that there should be only one yellow box at a junction.

Dr Fielden, who works at the Department of Health, said it was impossible to negotiate the crossing in one manoeuvre because the phasing of traffic lights forced drivers into the junction. She also said the lines marking out the junction were faded and difficult to see.

This week, the adjudicator agreed with Dr Fielden, 46, of Cheshunt, and quashed one of her fines.

After studying photographs of the scene, he also said the yellow box junction was painted incorrectly as it did not run right up to the kerb.

Today, Dr Fielden was jubilant after winning her case but said that thousands of other drivers must have been unjustly fined too. She is now waiting to see whether Transport for London will refund the money she paid to settle-the remaining two fines. She said: "I am delighted - but I wonder how many other people have been caught here.

"Suddenly, Transport for London must have decided to interpret the rules differently and started fining people, but got it wrong."

Dr Fielden wrote to TfL under the Freedom of Information Act to discover how many other drivers have been fined at the junction. But she says the organisation failed to respond within the statutory 21 days and before her appearance at the appeal.

Dr Fielden, who was travelling north along Green Lanes and attempting to turn right on to the North Circular when she was caught on camera, said: "This is a very busy junction indeed that is difficult to cross but I was always careful to do it properly."

In a statement, Transport for London said: "We will be reviewing the outcome of the hearing when we are formally notified of the outcome by the appeals service.

"This will include considering the layout of the box junction."

Paul Watters, of the AA Motoring Trust, said: "Transport for London should get this right. It believes it is leading the way on this kind of enforcement but whether it is leading the way in terms of fairness is another matter."

And congestion is increasing because people don't know the rules for box junctions and don't want to risk it

I might be totally wrong, but are you not allowed to wait in the box if you are turning right and are waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic?

Without the camera, many drivers enter the box when traffic is flowing and they know that their exit will be clear when they get there. This does NOT space vehicles by a whole box and throughtput can be much greater. Maybe double in some circumstances.

If there is one car in front, and space for thirty cars after the yellow box, it would be absolutely stupid to stop before the box until the other car has cleared it. Yet with a camera, this exactly what is required, just in case the car in front makes an emergency stop.

You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear.

PART II

SIGNIFICANCE OF BOX JUNCTION MARKINGS

Interpretation of Part II of Schedule
6. In this Part of this Schedule -

(a) "box junction" means the area of carriageway marked with yellow cross-hatching at a junction between two or more roads on which there has been placed the road marking shown in diagram 1043 or 1044; and

(b) a reference (however expressed) to a vehicle which is stationary or stops within a box junction includes a vehicle which is stationary whilst part of it is within the box junction.

Prohibition conveyed by markings in diagram 1043 or 1044
7. - (1) Except when placed in the circumstances described in paragraph 8, the road markings shown in diagrams 1043 and 1044 shall each convey the prohibition that no person shall cause a vehicle to enter the box junction so that the vehicle has to stop within the box junction due to the presence of stationary vehicles.

(2) The prohibition in sub-paragraph (1) does not apply to any person -

(a) who causes a vehicle to enter the box junction (other than a box junction at a roundabout) for the purpose of turning right; and

(b) stops it within the box junction for so long as it is prevented from completing the right turn by oncoming vehicles or other vehicles which are stationary whilst waiting to complete a right turn.

Prohibition conveyed when markings are placed in conjunction with signs in diagrams 615 and 811 [give way to oncoming vehicles & priority over oncoming vehicles]
8. When the road marking shown in diagram 1043 or 1044 is placed in conjunction with the signs shown in diagrams 615 and 811 on an area of carriageway which is less than 4.5 metres wide at its narrowest point, the road marking shall convey the prohibition that no person shall cause a vehicle to enter the box junction so that the vehicle has to stop within the box junction due to the presence of oncoming vehicles or other stationary vehicles beyond the box junction.

SOmebody in TfL needs to be prosecuted for actions ultra vires.

PART II

SIGNIFICANCE OF BOX JUNCTION MARKINGS

[...]

7. - (1) Except when placed in the circumstances described in paragraph 8, the road markings shown in diagrams 1043 and 1044 shall each convey the prohibition that no person shall cause a vehicle to enter the box junction so that the vehicle has to stop within the box junction due to the presence of stationary vehicles.