Motorists have been warned they could face an avalanche of fines when councils are given powers to enforce yellow box road junctions, the RAC has said.
Local authorities will be able to issue penalty charge notices from June 1 when they can take over enforcement powers from police. At the moment, only in London and Cardiff do councils have the yellow box powers. But from June, all councils will be able to apply for the authority to enforce moving traffic offences including going through 'no entry' signs or those signs saying no left or right turns, WalesOnline reports.
For the RAC, it is the yellow box enforcement that could lead to thousands of motorists getting fines. They say many of the junctions have design flaws that see motorists stuck on the hatching through no fault of their own, while others are maintained badly and it can be hard to see where the yellow lines begin and end.
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The motoring organisation, which provides roadside assistance and insurance, wants the Government to improve its official design and maintenance of the road markings, as well as its enforcement guidance. It says some yellow boxes have been placed in the wrong position, or are larger than they should be, while some can be obscured by buildings or other street furniture.
Gaps in the official yellow box guidance were also noted by the RAC when it commissioned chartered engineer Sam Wright, who was formerly responsible for the design and approval of them on the Transport for London road network, to write a report examining how they are enforced in the capital with a view to highlighting the possible confusion on the horizon as local authorities begin enforcing them. Wright explained: "The key design principle is that yellow boxes should be no bigger than is necessary to prevent vehicles obstructing through movements.
"They are not designed for, and serve no purpose in, situations where vehicles are travelling in the same direction. The second main condition is that drivers should have adequate visibility beyond the box to be able to make a clear judgement before entering it.
"It’s not just that drivers need to see the end of the box, they need to see that there is space beyond the box for their vehicle to fit without any part of it overhanging. In the case of a car that will be five to six metres. For larger vehicles, it will be up to 15 metres.
"I think designers should have to take a car out in rush hour to see if they can negotiate the box without stopping, before insisting that others do the same. Drivers may also be surprised to hear that there is no legal requirement for authorities to meet this design criteria and it’s simply down to the competence of the enforcing authority."
Penalising drivers for ignoring a "No Entry" sign will also be an infringement of the law that local authorities will be able to punish from June 1 A Freedom of Information request, meanwhile, revealed in 2020 that councils in London and Cardiff accrued £86 million between 2016 and 2019 from a staggering 1.3 million penalty charge notices. On Transport for London red routes, the penalty charge notice is now £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days.
The equivalent penalties in Cardiff, are £70 and £35 respectively. There is no doubt that these figures demonstrate what a lucrative source of revenue box junction enforcement can be for councils, especially if the guidance is not clear enough for the laws to be applied fairly.
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.
“We have written to the Department for Transport asking them to update the guidance to make it clear to local authorities what the minimum standard for design and condition of a box junction should be before letting enforcement begin, but they are 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.”
