10.2 Signals to Police and Traffic Ahead

Signals to Police and Traffic Ahead

When a police constable is regulating a junction — common in Georgetown at peak hours, at special events, and wherever lights are out — your audience is no longer only the minibus on your tail. Regulation 180(b) requires signals to a Police Constable and to traffic in front of the vehicle. Road Traffic Code rule 32 is the one-line rule the theoretical paper likes: where Police are controlling traffic, signal clearly which way you want to go.

Cap. 51:02 requires road users to observe the directions of police controlling traffic. The Road Traffic Code repeats that you MUST observe traffic signs and signals and the directions of Police controlling traffic, and stop when required by Police in uniform. A correct arm and a working indicator still do not let you filter left through a police-held queue without a definite signal to do so (rule 50). Green at a light still yields to a constable: the Light Signals Regulations say the green signal allows you to pass the stop line with due regard to other road users and subject to the directions of any police constable engaged in the regulation of traffic.

Three messages, not four

Rear drivers need a slow/stop signal and a ready-to-be-overtaken signal because they are matching your speed. A constable standing in the carriageway needs your intended course: straight, left, or right. Regulation 180(b) therefore lists three signals. Slow/stop and ready-to-be-overtaken remain rear signals; do not offer them as the answer when the stem says the officer is in front of you.

The right-turn police signal is the same posture as the rear turn-right / leave-a-line signal. If you already know Regulation 180(a)(ii), you already know 180(b)(iii). The new items to memorise are straight ahead and the point-left, which is not the circular rear-left signal.

Straight ahead

Raise the hand towards the shoulder and move the forearm well forward and then backwards in a vertical plane. The movement must be sufficiently pronounced to be easily seen by the constable. This is a pumping motion in a plane that is upright — not a horizontal sweep, not a palm-down slow-down, and not a circle to the head.

Use it when you are in a queue at a police-controlled crossroads and you do not intend to turn. The constable is splitting streams: some vehicles will be sent left along a side street, some right across oncoming traffic, some through. If you sit with both hands on the wheel and no signal, the officer has to guess. Rule 32 exists because guessing delays everyone and causes last-second lane cuts on roads such as the East Bank corridor and Georgetown one-ways.

On a motorcycle or bicycle you are even easier to misread: make the forearm travel obvious. At night, a dark sleeve against a dark cab is invisible; combine a pronounced arm with a working indicator if you are turning, and for straight ahead rely on the vertical-plane movement the regulation actually describes. There is no listed electrical substitute for straight ahead, so do not treat a pair of headlights or a hazard-flasher click as that signal.

Left to the constable

Point the hand to the left, making the movement sufficiently pronounced to be easily seen — or extend the near-side direction indicator. This is the first place Regulation 180 expressly names the near-side indicator.

Do not use the rear circular-left signal as a substitute when the person who must read you is in front. A constable facing you sees your windscreen and the near side of the car, not the circular flourish that a following driver would see on the off side. Pointing left, or lighting the near-side lamp, is the message designed for that viewpoint.

Keep left as you approach a left turn (rule 48). Do not swing out to the right first. Do not filter left around a police-held column unless you receive a definite signal to do so (rule 50). Filtering here means sneaking up the near side to turn left while the officer is holding the stream. Without a definite go-ahead, you stay in the queue.

Right to the constable

Same as turning right to drivers behind: rigid horizontal right arm, palm to the front, from the off side, or the off-side indicator. Combined with rule 46, you still take position just left of the middle when it is safe, and you still give way to oncoming traffic when you cut across it (rule 47). A police go for your stream is not a waiver of pedestrians who are crossing (rule 49) and not a waiver of looking right, left, right again at the junction (rule 42).

Who counts as police — and who does not

Accept directions from a police constable engaged in regulating traffic. School safety patrols stop vehicles with the recognised signal: right hand above the head and a sign marked STOP CHILDREN CROSSING. The Code says they have the same authority as a police rank in uniform for that purpose, and it is an offence to disobey. Drivers and riders of all vehicles must stop when so ordered.

The Code is equally clear about unauthorised persons. Rule 45: at a junction, do not rely on signals to go ahead given by unauthorised persons, but accept signals to stop unless you are sure there is no danger. A security guard, a minibus tout, or a well-meaning pedestrian waving you through a Sheriff Street junction is not Regulation 180(b). If they wave you to stop, treat that as a reason to hold back until you can see it is safe.

Police directions sit above your preferred path. If an officer is in the intersection, you follow the officer, and you still show which way you want to go. Cap. 51:02 also lets the Commissioner of Police issue directions for the guidance of road users — the Road Traffic Code is that guidance — and it creates offences for neglecting traffic directions. You do not need an unpublished fine figure for the exam; you need the conduct: signal your intended course, then obey the constable.

Worked junction (Georgetown pattern)

Imagine a four-way junction with a constable in the centre and the lights dark after a fault. You are on the major road, second vehicle back, intending to go straight toward the East Bank. Check the mirror (rule 72), then give the straight-ahead forearm signal so the officer and the vehicle in front can read you. Do not creep left as if to turn. When the officer beckons your stream, proceed with due regard to pedestrians and to traffic the officer has already released from the right.

If instead you intend to turn left into a side street, point left or use the near-side indicator in good time, stay in the near-side position, and wait for a definite signal before filtering. If you intend to turn right toward a stelling or a one-way, give the rigid off-side signal or off-side indicator, position just left of the middle when safe, and complete the turn only when the officer's direction and the oncoming gap both allow it.

The exam will try to mix the tables. Straight-ahead is not the slow-down (palm down, loose wrist). Point-left is not the circular rear-left. Ready-to-be-overtaken is not a police signal at all. Learn which audience the stem names — behind you, or the constable and traffic ahead — and pick from the matching list.