Friday, August 22, 2008
Too many lines
In California there are carpool lanes, often separated from the rest of the freeway by double yellow lines with a solid white line on the inside. So if you were driving in the carpool lane, you’d see the white line first, then the yellow. My brother-in-law, who prides himself on knowing everything, told me awhile back that this means drivers are allowed to leave the carpool lane, but not allowed to enter. This made sense to me, because why else would that solid white line be there?
Recently a coworker was telling me differently, that you are not allowed to cross the double yellow lines at all. Somebody was obviously wrong. It took a great deal of research to find the answer. Plenty of material said yellow lines are not meant to be crossed, but nothing explained the purpose of the white line. Finally I found this:
Section 21460 Double Lines
The purpose of the solid-white single line on the inside of the double yellow lines on buffered HOV lanes is to permit vehicles to legally drive to the left of the double yellow lines as defined in the provisions of this section.
In earlier readings I understood that double yellow lines also signify the division between opposing sides of traffic. So technically it would be illegal to be driving in a carpool lane without that white line there.
That’s just stupid. Use double white lines instead. Duh.