You are pulling out of a private drive onto a busy road. There is no stop sign or signal at the exit. Who must yield?

Why B is correct

Every driver who enters a roadway from a private drive, an alley or a parking aisle enters against traffic that already has the right to be there, and the obligation to wait falls entirely on the driver entering. A gap worth taking is one that remains a gap once you have completed the manoeuvre, not one that closes while you are still accelerating — and remember that a car merging from a side access cannot build road speed in twenty metres, so what looked comfortable from a standstill often is not. If sight lines are blocked by parked vehicles or a hedge, creep forward to improve them rather than nosing out and hoping. Turning right out of the drive is easier than crossing traffic, but the duty not to interfere applies to both.

Why the other options are wrong

A. Neither driver, since neither one has a stop sign

The absence of a stop sign does not create equality at the exit. A driver entering from the side yields regardless; the sign only marks where they must first come to a stop.

C. Whoever reaches the exit first

Right of way is not awarded by arrival time at a private access. Being first at the exit only means the driver has had longer to look at the traffic they are still required to yield to.

D. The approaching driver, because a private access carries its own right of way

A private drive or parking aisle carries no right-of-way privilege. Whatever the driver assumes about their own convenience, the law puts the duty on whoever is entering the through road.

On the road

A delivery van noses out of a shopping centre drive into an approaching car doing 40 mph. The closing speed leaves nothing to work with. The same van waiting ten seconds for the next gap joins traffic without another driver touching a brake.

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