Guidance on yellow box junctions needs a major rethink to avoid thousands of drivers being wrongly fined once councils get new powers. 

Previous RAC research has shown eight of 10 drivers struggle to get through yellow box junctions without stopping

The RAC has warned of an “avalanche of penalty charge notices being wrongly issued to drivers” once councils across England are allowed to enforce box junctions under new regulations from 1 June 2022. To date, only local authorities in London and Cardiff – and elsewhere the police – have had the power to issue penalty charge notices for these infringements. 

While RAC research shows 57% of drivers are generally in favour of yellow box junctions being enforced, the organisation has discovered that many junctions have design flaws which cause drivers to become trapped through no fault of their own, and that some are so poorly maintained that it’s hard to see where the yellow lines start and finish.  

The RAC also believes the official guidance in Chapter 5 of the Traffic Signs Manual is generally unsatisfactory as it does not clearly state the specific purpose of box junctions or show how to design them in relation to vehicle movements at junctions, and lacks any information on how they should be maintained and enforced. 

To tackle this, it’s calling on the Government to improve its official design, maintenance and enforcement guidance to councils. 

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: “In the absence of definitive guidance on the design, maintenance and enforcement of box junctions there will be a high degree of confusion among drivers and local authorities which could lead to an avalanche of penalty charge notices being wrongly issued and then having to be appealed. This will inevitably lead to an unnecessarily high number of appeals for local authorities to review, as well as some poor outcomes for drivers.” 

While the RAC has already written to the Department for Transport, it says the DfT is adamant the present guidance is sufficient. 

“We are worried that failing to update guidance to include the lessons learnt from more than 15 years of enforcement in London will lead to countless wrong fines being issued, no end of unnecessary stress for drivers who feel they have been unfairly treated and thousands of wasted council hours investigating appeals.  

“It’s absolutely crucial that yellow box junctions are enforced fairly and, as things stand, this may not be the case which will mean many drivers will be treated poorly and lose out financially as a result.” 

Indicating how lucrative box junction enforcement could be for councils in England, an RAC Freedom of Information request in 2020 showed that those in London and Cardiff raked in £86m between 2016 and 2019 from a staggering 1.3 million penalty charge notices (PCNs). More than £31m was accrued in the financial year 2018/19 from over half a million PCNs alone.  

On Transport for London (TfL) red routes, the penalty charge notice is now £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days. The penalty in Cardiff, which is the only authority outside London currently enforcing box junctions, is £70.00, reduced to £35 if payment is made within 21 days. 

Drivers can appeal fines if they think they can prove their innocence, but if they don’t win their cases, the RAC warns that this could prove to be a costly and time-consuming process.