Very stupid basic question about traffic lights!

[LightningOne]

So one thing that somehow manages to confuse me is say if a two car wide road has a crossing with a red light coming on the right hand traffic light, does it apply to both lanes or just the right?

Basically: imagine this: secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00801/joey-barton-red-lig_801201c.jpg but with the traffic light on the right rather than left and it's showing red. Whilst I'm in left lane (& there's no traffic light available on that side)... I stopped as there wasn't a light on my side and the one on the right was showing red but I got beeped for it so I assume I must have been wrong to stop...

Hope my stupid question makes sense. If not, please ask me to clarify.

Thank you

You’d already gone through the junction! No you don’t stop and they were right.

but I know I had not exceeded the stop line.

There is no stop line though? Have you assumed there is?

The stop line is the edge of the red cycle box.

Oh I see, I've not heard of repeater traffic lights when going through the highway code.

So can it generally be assumed that if there's no traffic light signage on the left side (only traffic lights on the right hand side) and I'm driving in the left lane, it should be OK for me to proceed if it looks clear?

It's pretty common. Are you a learner driver or a newly passed? I don't mean that rudely, I would have just thought that you would have noticed these before. You go by the lights at the junction, so the ones you passed through. If they're red you stop. Is it possible you didn't realise that you had already passed your own set of lights?

So can it generally be assumed that if there's no traffic light signage on the left side (only traffic lights on the right hand side) and I'm driving in the left lane, it should be OK for me to proceed if it looks clear?

No. There are two lights there that sit next to each other. The ones on the left, that you circled are for the left hand lane. The ones on the right are for the right hand lane of you are turning right.

Forget about the second set - the first set are the lights, and you do what is on them.

You then must proceed out the junction ( in this case straight on) regardless if you are in the left or right lane even if by the time you get to the second set they are red. Otherwise you will be blocking the road for the traffic coming from the next light sequence. There is no stop line so you should never stop once you pass the first light.

You need to get this - it is really dangerous if you stop. This may help www.driving-school-beckenham.co.uk/primary-and-secondary-traffic-lightsmobi.html

So can it generally be assumed that if there's no traffic light signage on the left side (only traffic lights on the right hand side) and I'm driving in the left lane, it should be OK for me to proceed if it looks clear?

This situation has nothing to do with the lights being on the left or the right. You had already passed the lights as shown in your second picture.

It’s more to do with road marking and road layout. Have you never sat at traffic lights first in the queue, and been watching the light straight across the road instead of creaking your neck to look at the one beside your car?

Slightly worried we have people on the road who don’t know things like this...