The Quiz That's Baffled Drivers: Just Who Has Priority Here?

This quiz set by Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads in Australia left drivers confused about which car has priority – how about you?

The quiz depicts an orange car waiting at a ‘Give Way’ sign in a slip road, indicating that it intends to turn left. In the meantime, the red car is is turning right and will head down the same road that the orange car wants to pull out on to.

The key to figuring out the right answer are the traffic lights; many drivers believe that the red light near the red car means that it should not being moving at all and that the orange car should have priority. Alas, they are not being observant enough.

Pay attention

That red light is actually for cars heading west/east, meaning that the north/south-facing red car is in fact not jumping a red light. Instead, cast an eye down to the green light – that’s the one that the red car is observing, allowing the car to turn out into the road if all is clear.

Not that the lights issue has helped as one driver wrote on the road authority’s Facebook page: “The lights are a little bit confusing. The orange does have to give way – but if the light is red on the red car and they’re over the solid line, it looks like they’re trying to run the red light and orange still has to give way regardless of the fact that there’s a green light at their intersection.”

Down under up here

Like in the UK, Aussie drivers who are stopped at Give Way sign must wait for other traffic to pass before safely pulling out.

As Department of Transport and Main Roads explains: “The orange car must give way to the red car. The red car is turning right at the intersection, and has to give way to all oncoming traffic, except a vehicle turning left using a slip lane.”

Driving well is not just about going when you have a green traffic light, it is also about making sure it is safe to go and allowing for any indiscretion made by other road users. To share the roads successfully, we need to work together and pay attention to each other, allowing for mistakes and realising that just because you think you are in the right does not mean that someone else has interpreted the situation in the same way as you.” – Rebecca Ashton, IAM RoadSmart Head of Driver Behaviour, to the Sun newspaper.

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