The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016

PART 5Movement at section 25 crossings

1.  The driver of a vehicle must not cause the vehicle or any part of it to stop within the limits of a section 25 crossing unless prevented from proceeding by circumstances beyond the driver’s control or it is necessary to stop to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

2.  A pedestrian must not remain on the carriageway within the limits of a section 25 crossing longer than is reasonably necessary for that pedestrian to pass over the crossing with reasonable despatch.

3.  Subject to paragraph 4, the driver of a vehicle must not cause it, or any part of it, to stop in a section 25 crossing controlled area.

4.—(1) The prohibition in paragraph 3 does not apply to—

(a)a pedal cycle; or

(b)a driver who stops a vehicle in a controlled area in any of the circumstances specified in sub-paragraph (2).

(2) The circumstances are—

(a)the driver has stopped the vehicle for the purpose of complying with paragraph 7(1);

(b)the driver has stopped the vehicle for the purpose of complying with an indication given by a light signal for the control of vehicular traffic or the direction of a constable in uniform, a traffic officer in uniform or a traffic warden;

(c)the driver is prevented from proceeding by circumstances beyond the driver’s control or it is necessary to stop to avoid injury or damage to persons or property;

(d)the vehicle is being used for at least one of the following purposes—

(i)fire and rescue authority;

(ii)Scottish Fire and Rescue Service;

(iii)ambulance;

(iv)blood service;

(v)providing a response to an emergency at the request of an NHS ambulance service;

(vi)bomb or explosive disposal;

(vii)special forces;

(viii)police;

(ix)National Crime Agency.

(e)the vehicle is stopped for no longer than is necessary for it to be used for the purposes of—

(i)an operation involving building, demolition or excavation;

(ii)the removal of any obstruction to traffic;

(iii)the maintenance, improvement or reconstruction of a road; or

(iv)the laying, erection, alteration, repair or cleaning in or near the controlled area of any sewer, or of any main, pipe or apparatus for the supply of gas, water or electricity, or of any electronic communications apparatus kept installed for the purposes of an electronic communications code system or of any other electronic communications apparatus lawfully kept installed in any position,

but only if the vehicle cannot be used for those purposes without stopping in the controlled area;

(f)the vehicle is a public service vehicle being used—

(i)in the provision of a local service; or

(ii)to carry passengers for hire or reward at separate fares,

where the vehicle is waiting in the controlled area in order to take up or set down passengers having proceeded past the crossing or the light signals to which the controlled area relates; or

(g)the vehicle is stopped for the purpose of making a left or right turn.

5.  When vehicular light signals at a Puffin crossing are displaying a light signal which conveys a prohibition described at paragraph 5(2) of Part 1, the driver of a vehicle must not cause it to contravene that prohibition.

6.—(1) Whilst any motor vehicle (“the approaching vehicle”) or any part of it is within the limits of a section 25 crossing controlled area and is proceeding towards the crossing to which the controlled area relates, the driver of the vehicle must not cause it or any part of it to pass ahead of the foremost part of—

(a)any other motor vehicle proceeding in the same direction

(b)a vehicle which is stationary for the purpose of complying with paragraph 5 or 7.

(2) In sub-paragraph (1)—

(a)the reference to a motor vehicle in paragraph (a) is, in a case where more than one motor vehicle is proceeding in the same direction as the approaching vehicle in a section 25 crossing controlled area, a reference to the motor vehicle nearest to the crossing to which the controlled area relates; and

(b)the reference to a stationary vehicle is, in a case where more than one vehicle is stationary in a controlled area for the purpose of complying with paragraph 5 or 7, a reference to the stationary vehicle nearest the crossing to which the controlled area relates.

7.—(1) Every pedestrian who is on the carriageway within the limits of a Zebra crossing, which is not for the time being controlled by a constable in uniform or traffic warden, before any part of a vehicle has entered those limits has precedence within those limits over that vehicle and the driver must accord such precedence to any such pedestrian.

(2) Where there is a refuge for pedestrians or central reservation on a Zebra crossing, the parts of the crossing situated on each side of the refuge or central reservation are, for the purposes of this paragraph, to be treated as separate crossings.