It's quite unusual to find such a situation in the UK. But if you do, nobody has right of way.

In practice the more confident driver would probably go first!

As per The Highway Code Rule 124

"look out for unmarked junctions where nobody has priority."

So it is up to everyone to ensure it is safe before crossing the junction. In general first there will cross first. Watch out where one street is busier or wider than the other though and may be trwated by locals as having priority.

There are priorities, as others have said, but they're not always easy to figure out. There are no 4-way stops as in Texas and other parts of the US of A.

I was involved in a collision at a junction (cross roads) with no markings. These roads were in a community of terraced houses - so just wide enough for 2 cars to pass and lots of double yellow parking restrictions,

The incident ended up in court, with quasi-scientific evidence from the police as well as statements from me, the other driver and a witness, about what had happened.

The key factor in deciding who had right of way was the way the tarmac had been laid. The road with the continuously laid tarmac was deemed to be the road with priority.

I was driving along the continuous tarmac, and the other party was driving on tarmac which butted up to the continuously laid road. So I was deemed to have priority, and the other driver should given way.

I was hit by the other car from my right, i.e. the driver's side, right on the B post. This was also seen as contributory in that other driver drove into me. Tyre marks on the road indicated I had taken appropriate evasive action.

There was an element of comedy at the end when they found the other driver guilty of careless driving. He was asked to produce his driving licence, but said he hadn't got it. The Clerk of the Court asked if he had had the letter telling him to bring his licence to the Court. He said he had. And added that the reason he hadn't got it was because the Magistrates had taken it off him the previous day when they banned him from driving!

Edited by BigJohnD on 23/02/2012 at 19:20

Wow! What do you guys do when you go abroad, in my country at least nobody bothers putting signs on small streets, everybody knows the guy on the left gives way. Also, in my country local roads give way to county roads, which give way to national roads. so if you're foreign and have no clue that local roads are marked with yellow, county with blue and national with red, you could be thinking because there are no signs you have right of way over the traffic on your left, which is not the case.