Double solid white lines and emergency services

[tenpenceshort]

7mike said:

Hey, guy I was training today stopped on a road with double white lines for a police car with lights flashing. Guess what; it went past.

Well it would, as could have anybody else, as passing a stationary vehicle is one of the exemptions to the solid white line rule.

[7mike]

tenpenceshort said:

Well it would, as could have anybody else, as passing a stationary vehicle is one of the exemptions to the solid white line rule.

You know that, I know that, obviously not everyone does though from reading through this thread.

[Ruskie]

A problem occurs when the general public doesn't know the Highway Code and continues at well >10mph making overtaking an issue (when driving through an area of solid lines) It is not an exemption as someone has mentioned.

[jaf01uk]

Ruskie said:

A problem occurs when the general public doesn't know the Highway Code and continues at well >10mph making overtaking an issue (when driving through an area of solid lines) It is not an exemption as someone has mentioned.

Hmm I fear someone might be along shortly to highlight the irony in your post, the less than 10mph doesn't apply to joe public in cars, I quote "You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

The bold part is joe publics requirement to keep things legal, and although we advocate a common sense approach that is the law...

[monthefish]

p1esk said:

MajorBeef said:

As stated there is no exemption for solid whites. They are there for good reason.

Not always.

You appear to have more faith than I do in the people who decide where to apply them.

Was going to post the very same. I have seen countless instances of inappropriate use, in both contexts (i.e. there when they shouldn't be, and also the double lines coming to an end before the hazard has been passed).

Here's an example. This is a bit of nsl road, approaching a straight. Follow the road in the direction shown and see where the unbroken line ends...




This actually prompts the question, who decides where they are applied?

[LeoSayer]

I posted this a few years ago...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I didn't cross double white lines to let and ambulance past and the ambulance driver also chose not to cross them.

[Ruskie]

jaf01uk said:

Ruskie said:

A problem occurs when the general public doesn't know the Highway Code and continues at well >10mph making overtaking an issue (when driving through an area of solid lines) It is not an exemption as someone has mentioned.

Hmm I fear someone might be along shortly to highlight the irony in your post, the less than 10mph doesn't apply to joe public in cars, I quote "You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

The bold part is joe publics requirement to keep things legal, and although we advocate a common sense approach that is the law...

Fair point, I didn't explain it very well. What I meant was cars driven by the general public don't always stop like they should do.

Do you always wait for vehicles to be absolutely stationary before crossing a double white line? As per the Highway Code.

[jaf01uk]

Ruskie said:

Fair point, I didn't explain it very well. What I meant was cars driven by the general public don't always stop like they should do.

Do you always wait for vehicles to be absolutely stationary before crossing a double white line? As per the Highway Code.

No, we exercise a bit of common sense and discretion bearing in mind that we absolutely do not have the exemption so tread carefully, the problem we have round about here is very long stretches of "overtaking lanes" where we have anything up to half a mile of arrow straight road with 3 lanes and often the 2 oncoming lanes are empty and the vehicle in front has slowed but not stopped and they can't understand why we wouldn't go past... another example of legislation failing to keep up with modernisation?

[gloucssid]

Please excuse me if I have this wrong but rule 129 does not allow overtaking under 10 mph except for pedal cyclist, horse or road maintenance vehicle. There is no mention that general overtaking is permitted below 10mph.

[johnao]

Ruskie said:

Fair point, I didn't explain it very well. What I meant was cars driven by the general public don't always stop like they should do.

Do you always wait for vehicles to be absolutely stationary before crossing a double white line? As per the Highway Code.

gloucssid said:

Please excuse me if I have this wrong but rule 129 does not allow overtaking under 10 mph except for pedal cyclist, horse or road maintenance vehicle. There is no mention that general overtaking is permitted below 10mph.

I'm assuming that the second quote is in response to the first. If so, then the point being made is that there is an exemption for overtaking a stationary vehicle but, you're quite right, not for a moving one.

[jaf01uk]

gloucssid said:

Please excuse me if I have this wrong but rule 129 does not allow overtaking under 10 mph except for pedal cyclist, horse or road maintenance vehicle. There is no mention that general overtaking is permitted below 10mph.

Yes, to make it 100% legal the car being "passed" would need to stop completely, it then becomes "passing a stationary vehicle" rather than an overtake...as mentioned above

[tricky1400]

perhaps this might be of some help http://www.bluelightaware.org.uk/