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Terminated
18th November 2006, 11:52
Have you ever noticed that we have overtaking double yellow lines leading to and around bends, yet in other instances you can find the white broken overtaking line leading up to and around a bend and there is no clear view round/through the bend?

Over the Haywards and down leading to Judgeford and past the golf course, is a good example. When approaching from either direction I scratch my head.

Ixion
18th November 2006, 11:58
So? The rule is not "you may overtake wherever there are no yellow lines". The rule is you may only overtake where it is safe to do so, you have 100 metres of visible clear road , etc and (extra) you do not cross a yellow line on your side of the centre line, whilst doing so.

The purpose of the yellow lines should be (and was, before the Insane Yellow Paint Maniac got loose with his paintbrush) to indicate that EVEN THOUGH this bit of road may appear safe for an overtaking manoeovre , you should not do so, becuase of some hidden danger.

Drum
18th November 2006, 12:43
And Transits rules also state that yellow no overtaking lines can only be used to ban overtaking when sight distance is restricted by vertical curvature, not horizontal curvature. It seems that not all road engineers know this rule.

Basically, the lack of "no overtaking" lines in no way implies that it is safe to pass.

Gremlin
18th November 2006, 13:47
Basically, the lack of "no overtaking" lines in no way implies that it is safe to pass.
And a presence of yellows down a perfectly good bit of straight indicates that you can be fined for your efforts...:mellow:

Shadows
18th November 2006, 19:59
If I consider it is safe to pass, then I will, the colour of the centre line makes no difference to my appraisal of the situation and decision whether or not to overtake, apart from warning me of those hidden rumble strips that like to upset things if you have your wheels anywhere near them when you pour the fuel on.

I ignore yellow lines because I disagree with where they are applied. I find it strange that so many of them appear in the best possible places for overtaking - nice, straight roads with heaps of shoulder and stuff all potential for cross traffic, and then you have places like BuckBuck referred to in his post, through Judgeford and past the golf course. There are several businesses, a narrow bridge, a dog shelter, many driveways and private roads tucked away, pedestrians, very little shoulder, a blind crest, but where the road appears nice, straight, and deceptively safe for overtaking.
Not a lot is more hazardous than when you are halfway through overtaking and somebody up ahead turns left onto the road and comes straight for you without even looking in your general direction!
Having the perfect recipe for this, a lot of that stretch of road should actually have a double yellow line down it - but it doesn't.

Go figure.

Grahameeboy
18th November 2006, 20:17
I suspect they had cars in mind with these lines...............

mstriumph
18th November 2006, 20:28
some of the road markings around toodyay have been put in by drunken abo.s whose primary means of transportation is a pair of feet methinks - 'no overtaking' markings where there's a good wide road and you can see for miles [not literally but you know wat i mean] and broken white lines where you wouldn't overtake for quids unless you had a death wish

i blame the french ........:yes:

Ixion
18th November 2006, 20:32
I blame the Welch. It's probably some cunning scheme to steal sheep

SN4PD
19th November 2006, 04:18
And a presence of yellows down a perfectly good bit of straight indicates that you can be fined for your efforts...:mellow:

Don't I know it.......... :dodge:

It's worth 35 bonus points now too :angry2:

Grahameeboy
19th November 2006, 04:48
Yep that was the one that tipped me over 100 points.......fine only $150......

Gremlin
19th November 2006, 15:06
Don't I know it.......... :dodge:

It's worth 35 bonus points now too :angry2:

fuck!! when was that? when I got done, only $150...

mind you, not sure who was riding at the time, as they only chased the bike up several weeks later, so that could be part of it, as the cop stated he WAS going to follow it up, and nail someone for it. Obviously, rider unknown, he gave me the fine, so I guess no demerits :scratch:

SN4PD
19th November 2006, 17:19
fuck!! when was that? when I got done, only $150...

mind you, not sure who was riding at the time, as they only chased the bike up several weeks later, so that could be part of it, as the cop stated he WAS going to follow it up, and nail someone for it. Obviously, rider unknown, he gave me the fine, so I guess no demerits :scratch:

This was about 3-4 months ago now, I believe it went up some time last year from 25 to 35 points, the fines still $150 though. (Wish they'd tripple the fine and make the points disappear.....)

Paul in NZ
19th November 2006, 18:00
Meh! Yellow lines are usually there for a reason - sometimes a daft one and sometimes because there is something you can't see like a dip or a gateway or summat. Sometimes they are there because of a series of accidents. I tend to think VERY carefully before crossing them and usually (99%) don't.

One thing that is always present with Yellow lines is the risk of a hefty fine and demerit points so why bother? I'm not usually in that much of a hurry.....

Paul N

Ixion
19th November 2006, 20:58
They used to be, and maybe down Souff still are. But up here the Insane Yellow Paint Maniac has gotten loose in a big way and painted double yellows continuously , without a break, for 20km at a time. No, I am not exaggerating. It is absolutely absurd. SH2 is almost solid yellow lines from Bombay to the Thames turnoff, and SH1 is now completely yellow lines from the hill going out of Hatfields Beach untill the far side of the hill after Wenderholm. Any relevance the lines had is totally lost.

scumdog
19th November 2006, 21:15
They used to be, and maybe down Souff still are. But up here the Insane Yellow Paint Maniac has gotten loose in a big way and painted double yellows continuously , without a break, for 20km at a time. No, I am not exaggerating. It is absolutely absurd. SH2 is almost solid yellow lines from Bombay to the Thames turnoff, and SH1 is now completely yellow lines from the hill going out of Hatfields Beach untill the far side of the hill after Wenderholm. Any relevance the lines had is totally lost.


In which case I feel sorry for all you Noff Eylanders.


(Notice the lack of 'r' in the word 'Noff' - up there you hardly use that letter, down here, to compensate, we add them to words that don't even have the letter 'r' in their composition)

Terminated
19th November 2006, 21:56
In which case I feel sorry for all you Noff Eylanders.


(Notice the lack of 'r' in the word 'Noff' - up there you hardly use that letter, down here, to compensate, we add them to words that don't even have the letter 'r' in their composition)

Now being an Aussie,,,,wait for it buckbuck, you are going to cop it for sure, its our vowel sounds that give us away isn't it Roo,,,iiiiissssssnnnnniiiiiittttt.

Back to the roads I recall the run from Rotorua out to Tauranga [admittedly in a cage] is absolutely dreadful for trying to pass,,,,let alone for the timber trucks.


Heads Up and Enjoy

Lou Girardin
20th November 2006, 06:02
Yellow lines are for those too stupid to know how to drive. And they're designed with the overtaking power of a Lada in mind.
Brought to you by the fine folks at Transhit Nanny Zealand.

Drum
20th November 2006, 07:37
They used to be, and maybe down Souff still are. But up here the Insane Yellow Paint Maniac has gotten loose in a big way and painted double yellows continuously , without a break, for 20km at a time. No, I am not exaggerating. It is absolutely absurd. SH2 is almost solid yellow lines from Bombay to the Thames turnoff, and SH1 is now completely yellow lines from the hill going out of Hatfields Beach untill the far side of the hill after Wenderholm. Any relevance the lines had is totally lost.

That section of SH1 past Hatfields was identified as a section of road with a particularly high crash rate.

The speed limit was dropped from 100 to 80 and the no passing lines were installed in a desperate attempt to get people to slow down and stop overtaking. There are no safe overtaking opportunities on that ridge, apart form the passing lane of course, and yet people were still giving it a go.

Interestingly, a particularly high percentage of the crashes (around 75%) involved high powered rear wheel drive vehicles.

Ixion
20th November 2006, 08:02
...the no passing lines were installed in a desperate attempt to get people to slow down
..


And there is the nub. Yellow lines were originally used to indicate that overtaking was hazardous. Now they have been turned to an entirely new purpose, as a means to force the flow of traffic down to the speed of the slowest driver.

Which they do. Yesterday I , and about 50 cars , followed in frustration a very old driver along that stretch of road. He never exceeded 50kph and on any corners would slow to 30kph. But noone could get past him because of those yellow lines. Some were able to pass on the passing lanes but they are so short that the number who did was less than the number that added to the rear of the queue.

This use of yellow lines is an abuse of their purpose and risks their becoming totally disregarded.

Dai
20th November 2006, 08:43
I blame the Welch. It's probably some cunning scheme to steal sheep

We are looking for some that dont run away at the sound of a zipper.

Have you heard that the sales of velcro closures have skyrocketed in 'der tidy land"

Drum
20th November 2006, 09:33
And there is the nub. Yellow lines were originally used to indicate that overtaking was hazardous. Now they have been turned to an entirely new purpose...........

Youre right. The idea is to provide visual cues that you are in a high risk environment.

Other cues include installing extra wide and/ or profiled edgelines, narrowing lanes, flush medians, etc

McJim
20th November 2006, 10:07
In which case I feel sorry for all you Noff Eylanders.


(Notice the lack of 'r' in the word 'Noff' - up there you hardly use that letter, down here, to compensate, we add them to words that don't even have the letter 'r' in their composition)

Speak ferr yerrsel' big man - Ah'm fae Awrklund an' I've got plenty o' R's (I've got plenty o' Arse as well but I'm on a diet to sort that out..)

The advantage we do have as bikes is that we can overtake cars where there is a solid yellow line so long as we don't cross the yellow line. But this has been said before in other threads.

Ixion
20th November 2006, 16:48
Youre right. The idea is to provide visual cues that you are in a high risk environment.

Other cues include installing extra wide and/ or profiled edgelines, narrowing lanes, flush medians, etc

Those are all good, And should be used more often. Along with judiciously placed bumps, potholes, wallows etc. It has long been a contention of mine that roads have been made too good. The quality of the roads and vehicles has now exceeded the quality of the drivers.

But using double yellow lines for that purpose is IMHO a no-no. Because, unlike the other things , which are helpful and war, the double yellows forbid. If they actually wanted to WARN drivers "Hey, this bit is dodgy as, think again", which would be a GoodThing, they could use continuous double broken yellow lines (quite possible, it used to be done)