Crossing a double white line to overtake.

knightstyle

A few days ago I was at the back of a line of 5 cars crawling behind a cyclist, about a mile of double white lines and the car in front would not overtake so we all had to wait. The car in front eventually pulled in to a garden centre and so did we, I parked by them and asked the young driver why she hadn't gone by the cyclist.
It turns out she had just passed her test and the driving instructor had told her never to cross the double white lines unless turning right or going passed a parked car.
So when I got home I looked up the rules, here they are for all you new, and not so new drivers.

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, 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.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

Aylesbury_Duck

I believe the appropriate response in these circumstances is:

Cool story, bro'

Nobbie1967

I was aware you could overtake cyclists, but not that they had to be doing less than 10mph. Most of the weekend warriors around here do more than that, but don't think you're going to get in trouble for overtaking any cyclist if done safely.

Car_54

knightstyle wrote: »

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, 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.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

The law also allows it:

(c)owing to circumstances outside the control of the driver;

(d)in order to avoid an accident; and

(h)for the purposes of complying with any direction of a constable in uniform or a traffic warden.

Strider590

The real problem is the use of solid lines where they ought not be and the fact the highway code apparently assumes we all still drive around in Model T Fords.

Now that people have gotten used to overtaking on them you often see drivers overtake cyclists on completely blind bends where if a car came the other way, they would have to ram the cyclist off the road.

angrycrow

The second most scary experience I ever had on a bike was due to an utter moron overtaking on double white lines. The road in question is a 60 limit but the reality is no one does more than 40 to 45 MPH because it is a steep downhill with very tight blind s bends over a mile long stretch. On a cycle I would normally hit at least 35 mph down through the bends. the entire section is narrow and no overtaking.

On approach to the no overtaking section I was aware of a van behind and repeatedly waved him past keeping tight to the kerb whilst traveling at 20 to 25 mph but he choose not to pass. Half way down the steep section on the first blind s bend whilst I was doing 35 mph he decided to overtake leaving just 2 inches between the side of his van and my handle bars. almost throwing me into the hedge as I tried to avoid a collision with the side of his van. He had no idea how dangerous his pass was. The ridiculous thing is once the s bends stopped and overtaking was allowed again I actually managed to pass him on my cycle. Needless to say when we reached the roundabout at the end of the road I stopped him and explained exactly how dangerous his pass was and that a less experienced rider would likely have been seriously injured or killed.

Johno100

angrycrow wrote: »

The second most scary experience I ever had on a bike was due to an utter moron overtaking on double white lines. The road in question is a 60 limit but the reality is no one does more than 40 to 45 MPH because it is a steep downhill with very tight blind s bends over a mile long stretch. On a cycle I would normally hit at least 35 mph down through the bends. the entire section is narrow and no overtaking.

On approach to the no overtaking section I was aware of a van behind and repeatedly waved him past keeping tight to the kerb whilst traveling at 20 to 25 mph but he choose not to pass. Half way down the steep section on the first blind s bend whilst I was doing 35 mph he decided to overtake leaving just 2 inches between the side of his van and my handle bars. almost throwing me into the hedge as I tried to avoid a collision with the side of his van. He had no idea how dangerous his pass was. The ridiculous thing is once the s bends stopped and overtaking was allowed again I actually managed to pass him on my cycle. Needless to say when we reached the roundabout at the end of the road I stopped him and explained exactly how dangerous his pass was and that a less experienced rider would likely have been seriously injured or killed.

As Aylesbury Duck said.

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

I believe the appropriate response in these circumstances is:

Cool story, bro'

Richard53

There's a hill near me, long but not steep, dead straight. From the top of the hill, you can see the road is clear for about a mile ahead. The road has three lanes and a double white line making the downhill lane 'no overtaking'. When there is little traffic, this can be a bit frustrating.


The road is used by many tractors, farm trucks, cyclists, slow lorries and so on. It is AMAZING how many are doing 9.9 mph or less, in my estimation.

takman

knightstyle wrote: »

A few days ago I was at the back of a line of 5 cars crawling behind a cyclist, about a mile of double white lines and the car in front would not overtake so we all had to wait. The car in front eventually pulled in to a garden centre and so did we, I parked by them and asked the young driver why she hadn't gone by the cyclist.
It turns out she had just passed her test and the driving instructor had told her never to cross the double white lines unless turning right or going passed a parked car.
So when I got home I looked up the rules, here they are for all you new, and not so new drivers.

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, 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.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

But if the cyclist going less than 10 mph for at least a mile then this isn't just caused by the front car not overtaking. Why couldn't the second or third car not overtake a car/s and the cyclist in one go when the traffic is moving so slowly?

This is a problem i often see on the road if the car immediately behind the slow vehicle doesn't overtake then nobody else will even try. So i have in the past overtaken 5+ cars perfectly safely and staying within the speed limit to get past a slow moving vehicle.

onomatopoeia99

takman wrote: »

But if the cyclist going less than 10 mph for at least a mile then this isn't just caused by the front car not overtaking. Why couldn't the second or third car not overtake a car/s and the cyclist in one go when the traffic is moving so slowly?

Double white lines - one can overtake a cyclist but not a car.

Also, usually when double white lines are in place the reason is poor visibility of oncoming traffic so barrelling along on the wrong side of the road past a queue of cars is rarely a good idea.

takman

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Double white lines - one can overtake a cyclist but not a car.

Also, usually when double white lines are in place the reason is poor visibility of oncoming traffic so barrelling along on the wrong side of the road past a queue of cars is rarely a good idea.

Yes i misread that it didn't apply to cars travelling less than 10 mph.

But it's worth pointing out that even when overtaking a cyclist you still need to give them plenty of room; so you would be going fully over to the other side of the road anyway.