Road Line Painting - Is This Common In Your Area?

[BigH]

All,
I am working in Malaysia. I've dealt with roads before - Interstate-type Highway in China, Country highways in Laos, 4-Lane Highway in India - but I have never seen this before (see attached).

I've always thought that edge lines were simply to mark the edge of the road - and that the solid (or striped) centreline was for overtaking. Here, though, it seems like they do not think one can cross a solid centreline or edge line to turn into a driveway! To me, that is lunacy - or close to it.

Is this common in your area? Or just here?

 

[Ron]

Funny! Labor must be cheap. You'd never get a subcontractor in the US to put that much detail into pavement markings.

 

[IRstuff]

Certainly, in California, that's roughly the case. Solid white denotes the legal boundary of the road or lane. If you look at a typical multi-lane street in California, you'll see that inter-lane white lines are generally dashed except for close to an intersection, where you are not allowed to change lanes. Likewise, solid whites protect bicycle lanes, until an intersection, where they turn to dashes. The edge of road solid whites likewise denote that you are not allowed to drive across then, but I think there's a practical thing that allows you to turn off for emergencies or car breakdowns. I-5 had solid white lane markers during construction, reinforced by signage that prohibited lane changes.

TTFN
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[oldestguy]

Gosh this is getting darned complicated. Take the difference between this manual and the original method of painting.

http://epdfiles.engr.wisc.edu/pdf_web_files/tic/bulletins/Bltn_009_Pavement_Markings.pdf

In Wisconsin the original method was a large wheel, say 6 or 8 feet diameter, 4 or 5 inch width on a trailer. Above the wheel was a can of paint with a valve on it. The valve controlled the rate at which paint dripped on the wheel. As the trailer was pulled along, someone on the trailer would feed the can of paint, as needed, and controlled the rate of drip.

 

[hokie66]

In Queensland, you can't legally cross that double solid line, except to "safely overtake a cyclist". In some other Australian states, you can cross it to enter or exit a private property, so it is a rule widely ignored and seldom enforced in Queensland.

 

[dicksewerrat]

It looks like the 'dashes' are at driveways. Interesting

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.

http://WWW.amlinereast.com

 

[itsmoked]

I actually think that's pretty nice as it informs a driver there 'could" be some action from the sides or across the lane at the dashed areas.

Of course in California some drivers would take the center dashed lines as 'passing approval' and they'd try to pass in the distance designated.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[LittleInch]

BigH, you need to remember that Malaysia was a British colony until the late 1950s so take many regulations and ways of doing things, like driving on the left, from the UK.

In the UK, the lines on the edge of the road tend to appear in rural areas to help identify the edge of the road at night. The double white lines means no passing or turning across them other than passing a very slow or stationary vehicle. In theory, if your entrance was onto a road with DWL, you are not allowed to turn right, hence the dashed lines.

Having a dashed line at the small engraves works well for me, it identifies an entrance for the main road and allows crossing a solid white line which is generally prohibited.

It is common in the UK to do it this way on rural roads.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[racookpe1978]

But in Europe, you "can" park anywhere (road, driveway, sidewalk, garage entrance, pedestrian zone, or mid-air) ... as long as you have your double-yellow blinking flashers going. 8<)

We saw while driving the farm roads in the upstate UK that, once the center divider strip went away, the roads became one-car-wide-but-two-way-watch-out-for-on-coming-cars (and tractors).

 

[BigInch]

BBC News caught this one.

I'm feeling a bit dyslexic.

 

[IRstuff]

Given that's it's probably in GB? The traffic flows from right to left, when facing the street, so the arrow is showing the direction of traffic, but you need to look right to see the oncoming traffic.

TTFN
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[hokie66]

Yes, I can believe that is in the UK. They have all sorts of funny signs and road markings.

 

[IRstuff]

Or, it could be some from a jokester...

Given that looks hand-painted

TTFN
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[BigInch]

All the <-look-> signs are hand painted.

 

[BigH]

I posted this because of driveways - not intersections or major highways - but an edge line should denote the edge of the pavement. So, if, perchance, as some argue that you can't cross a solid edge line, my driveway to my house has a solid line, then I can't enter my driveway? Strange . . . and coming out of my driveway - if I want to turn right (considering that I am on a left hand drive as in Malaysia, Thailand) I can't cross the solid centreline - so I must turn left, drive down perhaps a kilometre or so until I find a driveway that has centre dashed lines, pull in and then make a turn about and then I can turn right and, a kilometre later be at my original driveway - but its now permitted . . . equally strange.

If I can't pull out of my driveway onto a rural road and turn right across a solid centreline, I can't see why one could argue it is okay to pass a super slow moving vehicle by crossing a solid centreline.

Interesting discussion . . . "therory" vs "practical" - and they don't have bicycle lanes here.

 

[Debaser]

Yep, they look very much like our diagram 1010 lines, 1m long, with 1m gaps.

Quote from the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002: "(a)Edge of the carriageway at a road junction or a lay-by, or at an exit from a private drive onto a public road..."

The only places we use edge of carriageway solid lines are motorways, all-purpose dual carriageways (where they're also ribbed to give an audible warning), and on rural single carriageways where there are no kerbs, so it's not as if they're on every residential street.

 

[BigH]

Well, I'll be - just make sure I don't add a new house/driveway with a solid edge line!

 

[IRstuff]

Obviously, YMMV; in the US, I think there's a distinction between driving parallel to the line vs. driving perpendicular to the line.

TTFN
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[itsmoked]

US parallel lines mean only "no passing" so turning is fine. Double Double lines means "Brick Wall".

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[IRstuff]

But double doubles are usually along the median and rarely along the boundary edges.

TTFN
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