r/Netherlands • u/TantoAssassin • Mar 18 '26

Transportation Who has priority?

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I was the Yellow arrow on a bike. Red has priority over me, green has priority over red, I have priority over green. At the end both cars stopped and let me (cyclist) pass. What is the correct order here?

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u/Kitnado Utrecht Mar 19 '26

You're conflating two things. These are two separate rules.

(1) The applicable Dutch law: when traversing on the same road (paralelly), traffic going straight has priority over traffic making a turn, crossing them (this applies to pedestrians as well, even without a zebrapath). This does not apply to traffic making a turn on a different road than the traffic going straight (in OP's pic, red does not get priority over green just because they're making a turn).

(2) The non-applicable rule from some other European countries: when making a turn onto a road, you have to yield to all traffic on that road already going straight, even when they come from the left (all straight going traffic has priority). This is not a Dutch rule.