Anyone who has ever driven around the United Kingdom and knows the rules around box junctions will know how frustrating it can be to see other drivers move into the space that they should be leaving clear. The good news is that more and more councils have been taking up the option of enforcing the junctions by issuing Penalty Charge Notices to drivers who flout the rules around them. Guildford residents have been guilty of doing so at the Dennis Roundabout junction in the town more than any other single yellow box in the country, which one expert believes should be ‘ringing alarm bells’.
What Are the Rules Around Yellow Boxes?
When drivers are preparing for their test, they will have to study the Highway Code and will take a test on what they’ve learned. Given how long ago many people took their test, however, many will have forgotten numerous different aspects of the the rules of the road. That is perhaps never clearer than when it comes to box junctions, which boast criss-cross yellow lines that are painted on the road. If that is the case then a driver cannot enter the box until there is an exit for them to drive into on the other side of the area, with only one exception being in place around turning right.
If you are looking to turn right, you can enter the box and wait for the path to clear, presuming that you are only being stopped from doing so by the oncoming traffic or by other vehicles that are also attempting to turn right. If it is a signalled roundabout where the box appears then you are not allowed to enter the box until the point at which you can cross over it entirely without your car coming to a stop. The yellow boxes are there in order to stop cars from blocking the path of oncoming traffic in the event that the lights change and they are allowed to drive instead of you.
How They Are Fined Around the Country
Initially, the only parts of the country that could issue fines to drivers incorrectly using yellow boxes were Cardiff and London. That changed when the government introduced new legislation in the May of 2022 that allowed any council in England to apply for the powers of enforcement. The RAC made a Freedom of Information request to see how the 36 boxes that are outside of London and Cardiff and are enforced were dealt with, discovering that there were 32,748 PCNs issued to the point of the enquiry, resulting in fines totalling £998,640 being paid by the guilty drivers.
PCNs usually ask drivers to pay £70, but this can be reduced to £35 if it is paid within 21 days of receipt. Manchester City Council was the one that issued the most PCNs, with 13,310 being given out across six box junctions in the area. That brought in a total of £446,706, which was close to 50% of all of the yellow box fines brought in from outside the capital and Cardiff. £145,162 was raised by Kent Midway Council for 4,433 Penalty Charge Notices, followed by £139,798 for 3,618 fines that Buckinghamshire Council raised. Gloucestershire Council issued a mere 30 fines, raising £945.
Why Guildford’s Fines Might Be a Concern
the Senior Policy Officer at the RAC, Rod Dennis, said that a yellow box that generates a small number of fines suggests one that is working as it is supposed to. That, he said, is the aim, with the fear being that some councils instead use them as a ‘revenue-raising opportunity’. He said, “It’s vital box junctions are used in the correct places and are only as big as absolutely necessary. They must be fairly set up so that drivers don’t find themselves stranded through no fault of their own”. Whether or not that is the case in Guildford is obviously a matter of some debate, with some feeling it isn’t being used correctly.
In Guildford, the yellow box junction at Dennis Roundabout accounted for 4,250 PCNs being issued, which raised £81,445. That was the single greatest amount raised by fines around box junctions at one specific location, which an expert believes should ‘raise alarm bells’ at the council offices. It is suggestive of a yellow box that is not being used correctly. When the RAC hired chartered engineer Sam Wright to investigate the boxes in London and Cardiff, he discovered that 98 of the 100 in use were bigger than they needed to be, with the average box being 50% larger than was necessary.
Non-Compliance Leads to Congestion
If you have driven around the Dennis Roundabout and wondered why there is such a fuss being made about the yellow boxes, it is worth bearing in mind that the entire point of their existence is to ensure the smooth flow of traffic. A spokesperson for Surrey County Council said,
There are two yellow boxes on the [Dennis] roundabout. Prior to applying for moving traffic enforcement powers, we carried out a preliminary survey of these yellow boxes, which found that there were potentially about 3,000 contraventions a week on each of them.
The number of contraventions of the yellow boxes that there were, the spokesperson said, ‘reflected how congested the roundabout is’ which is down to the ‘high levels of non-compliance with the yellow boxes’. Although the amount of money raised in fines might suggest otherwise, the point of the yellow boxes isn’t to ‘catch people out’. Instead, the yellow boxes are clearly marked out so as to ensure that nobody could ‘reasonably claim’ that they hadn’t seen them. Perhaps more than few people aren’t aware what the point of the yellow boxes actually is, which is a problem with driving in general.