# Differences in country's Road Codes



## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

Danielk2 said:


> Yeah, it's the Reißverschluss rule that applies here. However, this sign is only used when 2 seperate carriageways merge, not when 2 lanes on the same road merge... Well it's not quite the Reißverschluss rule, cause you're allowed to change lane to make room for the merging traffic to enter..


About your signature, and it does have to do with traffic rules, officialy the UK is a metric country and it's only road signs that have not yet been converted. Also, you'll be happy the hear that there is a sign near my house saying "20m" and it certainly isn't miles. (this is in London)


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## TheCat (Apr 21, 2006)

No one from Canada or the US responded yet, so I'll try, because things here are a little different. In part, they are different because they are not so clearly defined. When I speak about Canada or even the US I am actually talking about Ontario, but it is fairly safe to generalize here about general right-of-way rules. The rules for traffic lights do defer between provinces and states somewhat.



Fuzzy Llama said:


> *Poland:*:
> A) Priority.
> When there is no priority-related signs on the intersection you must yield to traffic oncoming from the right. If you turn left (right in left-driving countries) you must yield to any other traffic (apart from those also turning left - you may perform the turn simultaneously).


Technically, this rule also applies here, except that in reality the situation is a bit more complicated. Officially, it is simple - when an intersection is uncontrolled, the priority-from-the-right rule applies. In practice, however, this is somewhat difficult to indicate because "have-priority" signs (like the yellow quadrilateral and the straight arrow through an intersection) are not used here.

When driving through an intersection in most places, the assumption is that if there is no sign (stop or yield - usually stop since yields are quite rare around here), you have the right of way. I don't even think that most drivers here are familiar with the priority-from-the-right rule, even though it is part of the theory, because it's simply not applied anywhere I've driven so far. Determining whether to apply this rule would require the driver to actively try to locate stop/yield signs on the crossroad.

Stop/yield signs work same as in Poland and pretty much elsewhere (except for New Zealand it seems). However, there is the special case of an all-way stop, where stop signs are erected in all directions, everyone has to stop, and the priority is with whoever stopped first. Sounds like a potential mess, but it works well (though can be inefficient).

The most dangerous thing about all-way stops is that after driving through a few such intersections along a small street and suddenly hitting one that is NOT an all-way stop (i.e. a regular stop), the driver might forget and just continue driving after stopping without properly checking traffic. Happened to me once when I was still learning how to drive. Also, sometimes the "all-way" indication is missing from the stop sign (often in mall parking lots), and at first it is not clear what kind of stop it is.



> B) Protected turns.
> When a traffic light display a sole green signal in shape of an arrow:
> ...
> you may expect no conflict with other traffic participants (including pedestrians, bicycles, etc.) - thus a green arrow is an indication of the protected turn.


Pretty much same thing here - mainly applies to left turns. If you have a left turn arrow with a red light, it means only vehicles turning left may go unimpeded. In this case, you may also turn right if the way is clear, which it often is in this case (so in a way, this also is a semi-protected right turn, though you have to be careful of people turning into your lane or idiots turning left into the right lane). If it appears with the green, there is protected travel to all directions, except for conflict from pedestrians when turning right.

A special rule here is that if the green light starts blinking rapidly, it has the same meaning as a green light with an arrow, basically allowing protected left turns. This is becoming increasingly uncommon however, as most of these are nowadays being replaced with green arrows.



> D) Conditional turn
> This signal:
> 
> 
> ...


A similar sign in Ontario would actually give you protected travel to the right (i.e. no conflicting traffic). This mainly means that pedestrians are facing a red light.

Turning right at a red light after stopping and yielding is allowed here by default, and unlike some locales that I visited in the US, it is quite rare for this to be prohibited (in NY outside of NYC, e.g. in Long Island, it is allowed by default, but I noticed that many intersections disallow that with a sign).



> E) Tram-related priority.
> On every intersection without traffic lights tram has priority - even if the signs show that it would be supposed to yield.
> On intersection controlled by traffic lights trams trams are treated as any other vehicle.
> You cannot stop on tram tracks.


The trams here in Toronto generally follow the same rules as everyone else. They do have their own traffic signals sometimes (coloured black instead of yellow for cars), but the signals for cars always make it clear what drivers of cars have to do, so it doesn't require extra thinking on the part of drivers.

The main thing that is special is that cars must stop behind the tram in the right lane (the tram is in the left lane) when it stops and doors open, to let passengers board/disembark.


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## Danielk2 (Jun 2, 2009)

DanielFigFoz said:


> About your signature, and it does have to do with traffic rules, officialy the UK is a metric country and it's only road signs that have not yet been converted. Also, you'll be happy the hear that there is a sign near my house saying "20m" and it certainly isn't miles. (this is in London)


I would like if we could discuss my signature elsewhere. If i break any rules or norms on SSC, feel free to report me. 

But if you insist to do so:
Yes, some road signs might have been changed, but there are still 1.000's-10.000's of road signs that hasn't. It's also okay to use both systems if everyone knows of both systems. Many americans do not know the metric system, as well as many non-americans don't know (whatever you call) their system.

And when i say "convert", then i mean convert completely on all signs (that are replacable, some might not be for historical reasons). Not just "officially" change the system. I don't give a damn about what systems some "official people" use when they talk.


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

I wasn't complaning about your signature, infact I agree with it.


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