Double White Lines

To save me the effort of retyping, here's my view from a similar thread about a few days ago on gixerjunkies: http://www.gixerjunkies.net/forum/sh...3&postcount=30

I rarely cross solid white lines on the bike and never do it in the car. If I know the road well enough to do so safely and I'm in a rush/riding quickly I will cross them but it's a pretty rare occasion. And I would never ride like the bloke in the vid that inspired the original post.

I will filter where there is double white lines. However i don't cross the white lines. Basically if there is room to get past i will get past. The rules afaik is no crossing the white lines... doesn't say anything about overtaking However there are places they have places white lines and you have enough room to see the road ahead, depending on conditions etc i will overtake there.

I learned this lesson the hard way on the way down to AR06 thanks to the unmarked police car that was following me

I don't agree with some of the places I've seen them enforced but having said that, don't do it guys! - even if it doesn't seem dangerous, is it worth the points on your licence to get past that car right now instead of waiting a couple of mins for the next overtaking opportunity?

[northwind]

I'll freely disregard any road marking when it's safe to do so tbh, double whites and single whites are seriously overused in places. Though to be fair, that's exagerrated when you're on a bike, as it's perfectly safe to overtake in places where in a typical car you couldn't.

To me, an unbroken line (double, or single) indicates "dont overtake, because its dangerous"

So i dont

I did do it once, and felt bad about it

Matt

To be honest, I'm not sure I understand the "wait until safe and legal to do so" standpoint. Now "safe" I can understand, but "legal"? Why such slavish devotion to this aspect of road law and such blatant disregard for others (ie. national speed limits)?

I work on the "safe" part. I'm a pretty cautious overtaker really but if I've assessed the situation as safe then sure I'll overtake. My view may not correlate with the police but that's all part of the observation, "safe" also includes licence safety, if I get caught well that's the risk, can't do the time don't do the crime.

I'm wondering how long it'll be before someone has an accident overtaking then tries to blame the highways agency for not putting double white lines down to stop them.

The Highway Code states

107: Double white lines where the line nearest to you is broken. This means you may cross the lines to overtake if it is safe, provided you can complete the manoeuvre before reaching a solid white line on your side. White arrows on the road indicate when you need to get back onto your side of the road.
108: Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.
Laws RTA sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

I read into this that is okay to cross the solid white line nearest you when you turn right or to pass anything travelling at less than 10 mph. as the code uses the word "or".

It would be interesting to hear from any of the boys in blue who frequent this place.

Originally Posted by Mogs

I read into this that is okay to cross the solid white line nearest you when you turn right or to pass anything travelling at less than 10 mph. as the code uses the word "or".

It would be interesting to hear from any of the boys in blue who frequent this place.

In the discussion on the "other" forum this came up too, I think it's the case that you can only pass a "pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle" if they are travelling at < 10mph. Anything else, must be stationary. If you expand the sentence:

You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.

Into:

You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less. You may cross the line if necessary to overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.

Then the first sentence obviously doesn't make sense (all stationary vehicles are travelling at < 10mph!). So to me that definitely says the < 10mph only applies to the "pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle" part.

To clarify a bit further, for this sentence:

"You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less."

That would mean that if you had a car travelling at 5mph, it would not fit the above description - it would need to be stationary (it's not!) and travelling at < 10mph (it is!). So only stationary cars fit the above.