Double White Line Meaning?

Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere - doesn't have to be AD related.

What does a solid double white line along the centre of the road mean?

No Overtaking
13
37%
No Reversing
3
9%
No Parking
19
54%
 
Total votes: 35

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akirk
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby akirk » Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:43 pm

totally :D

still going for what goes through the mind of the road engineers (strange bunch that they are!) - quite enjoying debating without trying to give it away - though we probably have, though maybe not considering the answers to the poll!

Alasdair

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Adamxck
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby Adamxck » Fri Oct 09, 2015 6:24 am

This is like the seatbelts. Got to read it properly. Then guess wrong anyway.
Adam.

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Strangely Brown
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby Strangely Brown » Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:43 am

Well, I think it should be obvious by now that the correct answer is "No Parking". I am very happy that more got it right than wrong. When I posed this question on PH a few years ago, the responses were over 90% wrong.

A double white line system does NOT mean "No Overtaking". That may well be what most people think it means, but nowhere in The Highway Code or TSRGD does that meaning appear. It only means that you may not cross the solid line on your side of the road except under specific circumstances. For car drivers, that usually has the effect of preventing an overtake, but what about motorcyclists? Should Horse be not allowed to pass a fellow biker within the confines of his side of the road just because there is solid line in the middle that would not need to cross anyway?

See HC rules: 128, 129, 240.

This question originally appeared as part of a competition for which the prize was a car. One entrant, predicting the error in the mind of the organisers chose the correct "No Parking" answer and waited. When the result was announced he, quite rightly, contacted the organisers to complain that the "correct" answer to their competition was, in fact, incorrect and that it could be categorically shown to be incorrect in the Highway Code. His complaint was rejected with the response, "Yes, you're right. The correct answer is wrong but that's what everyone thinks is right so that's the right answer." [My paraphrase]. IIRC the case went a fair bit further before he got fed up with fighting ignorance.

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Adamxck
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby Adamxck » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:25 am

Had this question been posted on anything other than an AD forum and not combined with "Sounds simple enough..." I would have gone with 'no overtaking'.

These things made it appear as some sort of trick question which made me discount 'no overtaking' immediately. Even though in reality, it's not a trick question, just less obvious and a general ignorance type thing.

I have learned something today.
Adam.

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akirk
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby akirk » Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:04 am

:) as I said above - a clever question - however I am sure that it is put in to stop people from overtaking, so the meaning for those putting it in place is no overtaking (hence my choosing that deliberately), they don't mean it as no parking - if they set out to do no parking then they would be painting various other colours of lines down the outside of the carriageway...

a more pedantic look at it would also say that it can't mean no parking on its own as it carries other connotations (no crossing being the obvious one), so arguably it doesn't actaully mean (in the correct sense of the English language) any of those... if the question instead asked - which of these is prohibited... then that would make more sense...

so clever concept - badly worded question :D

Alasdair

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StressedDave
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby StressedDave » Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:35 am

Of course, you can stop in a double white system and indeed leave the car with the engine off and the handbrake on to load/offload goods and occupants (note that the driver is included in the list of people allowed to be offloaded). If the goods happen to be stored in your house and take several hours to load, then you're still not contravening the Regs.

It will depend on your definition of parking
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martine
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby martine » Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:59 pm

akirk wrote:...a clever question - however I am sure that it is put in to stop people from overtaking...Alasdair

I'm not so sure...isn't the point it's to discourage vehicles from moving off-side as the view is likely to make it unsafe...not a prohibition on overtaking as such...think 2 motorcycles as above...nothing wrong necessarily in that situation?

I got it right and for the right reasons too!<Jeremy Clarkson Smug Face: on>
Martin - Bristol Advanced Motorists: IMI National Observer, Group Secretary, Masters (dist), DSA: ADI, Fleet, RoSPA (Dip)

sussex2
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby sussex2 » Fri Oct 09, 2015 1:10 pm

I got the correct answer but many people would plump for No Overtaking as it provides the most simple answer.

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akirk
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby akirk » Fri Oct 09, 2015 1:26 pm

martine wrote:
akirk wrote:...a clever question - however I am sure that it is put in to stop people from overtaking...Alasdair

I'm not so sure...isn't the point it's to discourage vehicles from moving off-side as the view is likely to make it unsafe...not a prohibition on overtaking as such...think 2 motorcycles as above...nothing wrong necessarily in that situation?

I got it right and for the right reasons too!<Jeremy Clarkson Smug Face: on>


I suspect we might both be right - those engineers I have met seem to only think about roads in terms of cars!

Alasdair

sussex2
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Re: Double White Line Meaning?

Postby sussex2 » Fri Oct 09, 2015 1:47 pm

All our planning for road users has the principle ingredient as the car; other lesser beings are subsidiary.
It's a legacy of government planning in the 1970s and I'd swear a lot of the planners have flared hipster trousers. It takes 50 years to change attitudes and boy oh boy do this lot show it :)
I've just had a vision of a portly middle aged man in flared hipsters - time for the pub!


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