If a learner on test (car) is sat at red traffic lights on a filter lane (the lights do not apply to the filter lane) would they fail their test?
If not would they fail it if some hairy-arsed trucker came up behind and gave a toot on the horn?
Do you mean to say that the filter lane is a left hand filter lane and it is marked with GIVE WAY only? Do you also mean that the Learner wants to turn left?
If both are true then the learner will get a Serious for Undue Hesitation and will fail. You did say that the lights don’t apply to the filter lane. The vehicle behind sounding the horn does not itself influence the examiner, it is just an indication of what the vehicle behind wants to do and it is the action or reaction of the learner that will be marked by the examiner (or not).
However, there are so many other things that could be relevant. Why is the learner in that lane in the first place? Does the learner want to go straight ahead, or left or right? Is the learner signalling at all? Is there a clearly marked arrow on the road in any lane at all?
Is there a clear lane warning sign on the road anywhere?
In order to answer your question correctly, you need to be absolutely specific about the exact layout of the road, the markings and the conditions.
There is a certain junction at the confluence of Chorley New Road, Beaumont Road and Victoria Avenue in the Bolton area that roughly fits the description you have given. Is that where you mean?
Cheers,
LandyLad
MADBAZ:
If a learner on test (car) is sat at red traffic lights on a filter lane (the lights do not apply to the filter lane) would they fail their test?
In most circumstances yes (serious) but the exception might be if they did not inconvenience another road user (minor)
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll= … 118.1,0,3
The learner was waiting on the ‘turn left’ arrow just behind the van in the link, there is no traffic from the right.
There is now a test centre a couple of hundred yards down the road as is our depot, I kinda feel guilty cos as I came up behind, the car was stationary, I could see the driver was watching the traffic lights and when I stopped I gave a quick toot, it wasn’t until they moved off that I noticed the passenger had a HiViz on which was a sure sign of a driver on test.
MADBAZ:
Google MapsThe learner was waiting on the ‘turn left’ arrow just behind the van in the link, there is no traffic from the right.
There is now a test centre a couple of hundred yards down the road as is our depot, I kinda feel guilty cos as I came up behind, the car was stationary, I could see the driver was watching the traffic lights and when I stopped I gave a quick toot, it wasn’t until they moved off that I noticed the passenger had a HiViz on which was a sure sign of a driver on test.
The examiner would have noticed you waiting behind so toot or no toot the result would be the same - serious and a fail
Don’t feel guilty, it’s almost certain that the learner had already failed before you arrived behind. If the learner was ‘watching the lights’ then they hadn’t noticed that there isn’t a stop line for the left filter lane and they should have gone up to the give way line, observed right and left and proceeded or not according to whether there was traffic on the right etc. Doing what they did showed the examiner that they were not observing the road layout properly. A vehicle approaching from behind would not really have expected them to stop if road on right was clear and they could have rear-ended them.
HOWEVER, I am sure that an examiner would have given the learner maybe 5 seconds to realise that the lights don’t apply to this left turn and to get going, maybe a minor. But that’s not the impression I get from your account of the situation as you say you felt it necessary to beep your horn.
I have personally known a learner to fail in this EXACT situation for doing exactly what you have described.
So don’t feel guilty, it’s not your fault and your beeping didn’t make it any worse.
I’m almost certain they may well have failed, but I can’t help thinking that my tooting may well have tipped the examiner.
ah well life goes on, thanx for the replies btw.
MadBaz,
you beeping the horn would not have changed the examiner’s mind one way or the other. Examiners dont need reminders in such circumstances, they have seen and experienced every kind of driver fault there is many times.
The examiner would be expecting the learner to have misread the situation and would have failed (or passed) the learner according to what the learner did or didnt do, not what you did. Trust me. You never know, the learner might have reacted to your beep nice and promptly and the examiner might have thought that the learner sorted out a problem on their own and been given the benefit of the doubt. They might have been passed after all!
Anyway, just to state that sounding one’s horn on the highway is a road traffic offence at any time of the day unless it is to alert another road user who you think hasn’t seen you that they are about to enter a danger, e.g reversing into you or driving into you. It is the same as flashing one’s headlights, i.e. to alert them of your prescence.
So you should be more concerned about your own behaviour than what happened to the poor learner! 
Hope that takes you mind off the learner! 
Anyway if they have failed then its good for the economy because some poor driving instructor will get a few more lessons out of them and the DSA will get another £62 test fee and there will be a few more quid moving around the economy!!!
LandyLad:
Anyway, just to state that sounding one’s horn on the highway is a road traffic offence at any time of the day unless it is to alert another road user who you think hasn’t seen you that they are about to enter a danger, e.g reversing into you or driving into you. It is the same as flashing one’s headlights, i.e. to alert them of your prescence.
So you should be more concerned about your own behaviour than what happened to the poor learner!
Hope that takes you mind off the learner!
Point taken
[tongue in cheek] Although in my defence, I was alerting them to my presence [/tongue in cheek]
That’s quick thinking! I like the way you reacted to my “tongue in cheek” comment there, its the sign of a good driver!
Just to confirm most of the above comments. The standards have, without any doubt, dropped. What would have been a serious fault straight away (eg the described scenario) would now be marked as a minor if it had no effect on anyone else. But when the action, or non-action, affects another road user or pedestrian it turns into a serious (fail) point.
The same applies to blocking a side road or stopping over KEEP CLEAR markings. It’s a minor until someone else arrives at the same bit of tarmac and you’ve blocked them. Then you’ve failed.
So have the standards dropped OR is the marking system being applied more fairly? That debate could go on forever!
Personally, I’m constantly amazed at just how the marks are applied. It works very much in the candidate’s favour.
Good luck all, Pete