Rules ›
Emergency and priority vehicles
The check asks how to give way to ambulances, fire engines and police cars, and how to treat route buses and bus lanes. These rules decide who goes first or who must move.
Key rules
- Near an intersection, when an emergency vehicle approaches, keep out of the intersection, move to the left and stop.
- Elsewhere, move to the left and let it pass.
- On a one-way road, if moving left would block the emergency vehicle, move to the right.
- When a route bus at a stop signals to leave, do not block it, unless you would need sudden braking or steering.
- In a bus-only lane, other cars may not drive, except for turning or road works and similar cases.
- In a priority lane for buses, cars must leave it promptly when a bus comes up from behind.
- If traffic is heavy and you could not leave the priority lane for a bus, do not enter it at all.
- On an expressway, do not block an emergency vehicle that is entering or leaving the main carriageway.
Common traps
- Near an intersection you stop; elsewhere you move left and give way. Do not mix them up.
- "Always move left" is not true on a one-way road when it would block the emergency vehicle.
- A bus-only lane and a bus priority lane are different: in the priority lane you must leave when a bus comes.
- Do not block a departing bus, but you do not have to brake hard or swerve.
In Japan you pull to the left, not the right, for emergency vehicles, and you stop clear of the intersection.
Try 2 questions
On a one-way road, you must always move to the left, even if doing so would obstruct an emergency vehicle.
Answer: × On a one-way road, if moving left would obstruct the emergency vehicle, you must move to the right.
When a route bus stopped at a bus stop signals with its indicator that it is about to pull out, vehicles behind it must not obstruct it.
Answer: ○ The exception is when you would have to brake or swerve suddenly to avoid it.