“We have already mentioned unmarked crossroads in the earlier videos, but understanding priority is so important that we think they are worth mentioning again here.
Unmarked junctions present more room for error. If you, or other road users, are not fully alert. Because of this, you always need to take special care to make sure that you know what the other road users intend to do. Here’s a question for oyu.
Look at the diagram. Ask yourself, which of the cars is on the major road and has priority. The red car or the yellow car?
If your answer is the red car, I’m afraid that you are incorrect and if you answered the yellow car, you are also incorrect. At an unmarked crossroads, no one has automatic priority. Even if they are on the main road. Full marks if you answered neither.
Even if you are the driver of the red car and you drive on that road every day, knowing it to be the main road, the driver of the yellow car may be a stranger to the district and think that they have priority. If both drivers assume that they have priority with the buildings blocking their view, they won’t see each other until it’s too late.
Here’s an example of an unmarked crossroad that could catch out a non-local driver. The main road goes around to the left. Treat all unmarked junctions, especially crossroads, with extra caution. This doesn’t mean that you have to crawl at a snail’s pace, but oyu must be able to stop if necessary.
There are three simple rules that you can base all of your driving decisions on and that are particularly helpful at unmarked crossorads. When driving, you need to consider what you can see, what you can’t see and what might reasonably be expected to happen.
If the driver of the yellow car applies this rule, his thinking will be something like ‘Can I see a crossroad with no markings”, “I can’t see past the houses on each side” and “There may be a driver or rider on the other road who doesn’t know I’m here, I’ll ease off the gas until I am 100% sure that it’s safe to proceed.”
Start to apply these simple rules in all of your driving and you will be going a long way towards being safe behind the wheel.
The key points are:
– At at unmarked crossroads, there is no defined priority.
– You must always be prepared to give way.
– Never assume that you have priority.
– Base your decisions on:
– What you see, what you can’t see
– What might be reasonably expected to happen.”
