Emerging, priority, and the judgement calls at junctions with no clear right of way
Article 9 covered turning off a major road. This one covers the reverse, joining one, plus the specific problem crossroads create when there’s no working signal to settle who goes first. Both ask for more judgement than procedure, and that’s really the point of teaching them properly. A learner has to build the ability to make these decisions for themselves, not just get through the test, because there’s nobody sitting next to them making the call once they’ve passed.
Emerging comes down to one thing: vision for decision. How much of the road you can actually see is what decides what you do next, which means speed on approach is the key control, not a fixed gear or a fixed distance from the line.
Emerging Left
MSPSL still applies, but the weight shifts almost entirely onto Look, and onto how much of the major road you can actually see. An open junction, clear sightlines both ways, lets you approach in second or even third gear and make a considered decision about whether to slow, stop, or simply filter out. A closed junction, blocked by a hedge, a parked van, or the angle of the road, demands first gear, clutch down, and a genuine readiness to stop right at the give-way line, because the less you can see, the less you’re entitled to assume.
Position with a clear view of the road without creeping over the line, control your speed to match what that view actually shows you, and look right first, since traffic from your right is the nearer hazard, then left, then right again immediately before you commit. A gap that looked safe when you first checked can close by the time you’re ready to move.
Once you’ve emerged, your offside mirror earns its keep. Traffic already on the major road, moving in your new direction of travel, will be coming up behind you on your right, and checking that mirror tells you how quickly you need to build your own speed to join the flow rather than holding it up, right up to a safe maximum for the road.
Emerging Right
The same principle, but you’re crossing the nearside lane to reach the far side of the road, so the gap you need is bigger than it looks from a standing start. Position centrally in the mouth of the junction if there’s room, to get the widest possible view both ways. Look right, left, right again, and this time factor in your own turning time as well as the other traffic’s closing speed, you’re not just crossing a gap, you’re threading into a stream of traffic while turning across it.
Here it’s the nearside mirror that helps you afterwards, telling you how quickly you need to build your speed up to match the flow you’ve just joined, on your left this time, and get to a safe maximum for the road rather than sitting well below it.
Crossroads
Treat any crossroads as a hazard the moment you recognise it’s coming, whether from warning signs, road markings, or simply the shape of the junction ahead. Where there’s no signal and no clear priority markings, the two roads share the same underlying rule as a T-junction, decide who’s on the minor road and give way accordingly, but crossroads add a second live junction directly in your path, which means a vehicle you weren’t watching can still catch you out. Keep your speed matched to what you can actually see down both side roads, not just the one you’re more naturally looking at.
Turning Right at a Crossroads
A crossroads with a vehicle also waiting to turn right from the opposite direction adds a decision most junctions don’t ask of you. Offside to offside, passing the other vehicle’s right side to your right side, keeps your view of the road ahead clear and is the preferred method wherever it’s physically possible. Nearside to nearside, passing left side to left side, blocks that view entirely, since the other vehicle sits directly in your eyeline, and it’s usually only necessary where the road layout, markings, or a staggered junction leave no other option.
The size of the vehicles involved matters too. A large vehicle, a van, a lorry, a bus, often can’t manage nearside to nearside at all, the turning circle and the length simply don’t allow it, which makes offside to offside the practical choice as well as the safer one whenever a larger vehicle is part of the picture. Whichever method the situation calls for, treat the vehicle blocking part of your view as a hazard in its own right, anything hidden behind it needs to be assumed, not guessed at.
Why This Matters for Teaching
Emerging and crossroads both suffer from the same teaching trap: a pupil can learn the mechanics, the gear, the position, the sequence of looks, without ever being tested on the judgement underneath, because a quiet road will forgive an unfinished decision most of the time. Put a pupil through a genuinely closed junction, or a crossroads with something waiting on the opposite side, and you find out fast whether they’re actually reading the situation or just running through steps. That’s the version worth practising deliberately, not the one that happens to be quiet.
Next in the series: Making Progress and Speed Awareness, covering the difference between the legal limit and the safe one, and what holding up traffic actually costs.
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