Overtaking

[Dr Jekyll]

Jon1967x said:

One has to ask if it was illegal, why use a broken line.

+1

If it was illegal, there should be a no overtaking sign.

[agtlaw]

Drawweight said:

One has to ask if it's legal to overtake then why is the road marked up as it is?

Is this a well known accident blackspot or are we missing something out of range of the photo?

Traffic signs manual:

"Diagram 1040.2 may be used to separate opposing flows of traffic where the warning line is considered insufficient at hazards such as a bend or the brow of a hill."

[turboteeth]

Legal to overtake but if you crashed you may struggle to argue it was "necessary" unless the car you passed was going extremely slow!

[agtlaw]

turboteeth said:

Legal to overtake but if you crashed you may struggle to argue it was "necessary" unless the car you passed was going extremely slow!

As said above, the law doesn't require it to be necessary.

The "safe to do so" test is set out in the SI.

[RegMolehusband]

Those sort of road markings are simply to increase the separation between vehicles. You can cross the broken line.

[4rephill]

Looking at the picture, I'd say that the markings have been put on the road to help highlight the fact there is a high risk of oncoming cars traveling at high speed and so drivers should use additional caution when considering an overtake, but it is perfectly legal to overtake there!

[Garvin]

I find the "unless it is seen by the driver to be safe to do so" amusing . . . . . . . as if drivers are permitted elsewhere to do things when they can see it is unsafe to do so!

[grkify]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses so it looks like the general thought is that i can overtake here as long as its safe to do so. The road in question is the A37 between ilchester and yeovil if it helps anyone above, there has been a few accidents along this road not on this section though and it does flood occasionally.

[Sam.F]

There is a bit of the A57 near Sheffield that's like this, used to be a VERY wide 2-lane road but now has the hatched area down the middle presumably to separate the traffic a bit more. Most folk still overtake using the hatched area.

[cptsideways]

Adding lanes like this makes the road narrower to the average driver & they will drive slower on it. Its used to reduce the percentile speeds.

The Stonehenge section of the A303 has this, those in the know make use of the overtaking opportunities.

[herewego]

I wonder if these markings increase the risk to cyclists since they definitely push cars closer to the edge of the road.

[CaptainMorgan]

Even the road had normal dashed white lines down the middle you'd still need to move over further than a foot to pass a cyclist safely.

[Jon1967x]

It should help cyclists as traffic coming the other way should be closer to the curb giving more room for a car to move out to pass a cyclist.

[herewego]

Jon1967x said:

It should help cyclists as traffic coming the other way should be closer to the curb giving more room for a car to move out to pass a cyclist.

I hadn't thought of that, but if drivers, such as the OP, are reluctant to move into the hatched area then they'd be trying to pass the cyclist without moving over much. On balance perhaps the risk is unchanged.

[mph999]

There's one spot on the A4 out of Thatcham with dotted makings, I actively make use of it, once I've passed the junction on the left, and if the layby on the right is empty, and of course nothing oncoming - perfectly legal.

[HertsBiker]

It's my private lane for use on my bike. Use it all the time, it's very considerate of the council to put them on the road as it allows constant overtakes even in heavy traffic.... Only kidding. Or am I ?

[cptsideways]

Jon1967x said:

It should help cyclists as traffic coming the other way should be closer to the curb giving more room for a car to move out to pass a cyclist.

Except most motorists consider crossing white lines of any sort instant death, so they don't & cut up cyclists instead.