Safe Speed Forums

I thought it was April 1st, but I was wrong!

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teess ... -19940948/

And wait for this to be rolled out to a road near you, so in 10 years' time overtaking will be banned on any moderately twisty rural road

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

if it is a specific biker issue why not just make it illegal for bikers to overtake??

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

A carte blanche approach is a typical knee jerk reaction. The authorities have used the cheapest solution and it won't stop high speed runs and it's often easy enough to overtake on a bike without crossing the white lines. And are they really expecting all of us to sit behind a really slow moving vehicle for mile after mile after mile?

And yet while hoping to overtake on unfamiliar roads in my old jallopy I do quite often come across the very shortest of broken white lines between blind crests and bends with high hedges, and when I say short I mean 100-150 yds, and wonder why on earth it's there as nothing bar a MotoGP bike or a Group B rally car could jump a slow vehicle and be back in safely if they met themselves coming the other way.

I'm not quite sure how to react to this one really. I guess at least its better than a blanket speed limit - the A515 in Derbyshire was also popular with bikes has just copped for this.

I think the real worry is as Peter E says that this will just become standard practice everywhere.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

Well, if there were any safe overtaking spots on this road and someone comes up behind a slow vehicle, tractor, lorry or such then they are forcing impatience in drivers and more risk of bad decisions or enticing someone to illegally overtake.

I agree kneejerk reaction. If they were so concerned they would put POLICE there to educate

So we have nutter bikers passing at three figure numbers – over 40mph in excess of the limit – with manoeuvres so daft they’re youtube worthy, and these double whites are meant to make them think twice? Ha!

Another law aimed at the minority, which will of course be utterly ineffective against them, but will needlessly have a significant negative impact upon everyone else

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Since when did solid white lines signify no overtaking?

Double solid white lines mean "no changing lanes to the right", not "no overtaking". Two motorbikers, for example, could probably overtake eachother legally.

Now people will get used to ignoring double white lines. Wonderful.

Actually, don't double white lines require the police to authorise them?

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Andrew.

Excellent story. I can see that journalistic excellence abounds in North Yorks.


This is bollocks, pure and simple. I lean my bike over to go around corners. I don't call it 'scraping'. No-one I've ever met would describe leaning the bike over in corners as 'scraping'. I have to lean to corner at 5mph. Am I 'scraping'?

Just in case any of you want to join in but are too lazy to even go to journalism school here's my top tip for this type of story - find some arse who probably couldn't ride a 125 to its limit and then ask him if he's a riding god or not. You are guaranteed to get a good quote. Hell, just make one up, everyone will believe you because all bikers are maniacs, right?

"Yeah! I was, like, you know, doing 250 miles per hour on my GSXKAWADAHA750, scraping everywhere, and my hair was on fire, and I was totally awesome and faster than Rossi..."

Aren't there any decent journalists left out there? Shame on North Yorkshire plod for 'welcoming the move'.

On a similar note, anyone who has ridden up the A82 near to Fort William will be well aware of the new disease DWLI (Double White Line-Itis) which has affected the roads up there. Fortunately it's a small outbreak, but we don't want to see an epidemic, do we? There are sections of the A82 with DWLs where it is easy to see that safe overtakes are on for sufficiently powerful vehicles driven or ridden appropriately, but DWLs say 'NO'. So far I've resisted the urge to overtake anyway, but I can understand why others don't. Putting them where they don't belong devalues them all.

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

You are right. In fact they signify that one 'must not cross or straddle' them (with various exceptions) [rule 129].
Of course 4 wheeled motorists have to straddle then cross them in order to overtake; however, bikers might not need to It would be a bit of a squeeze

108. 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 to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.
Laws RTA sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

The road is all S/C and only 3 cars wide, so if you are a law-abiding motorist your speed along it in a car is going to be that of the slowest. Bring on the 20 mile traffic queue!
No-where will it affect the 'bikers' on it, as they totally ignore the existing double lines that are already there.

Another law that will only affect the motorist.

(Forgot about the lorries combined with very steep hills!)

Shouldn't be a problem! There won't be any trafpol around to catch you crossing the white lines and dish out the fines, so just ignore them! If there WERE any trafpol about, you wouldn't have needed the white lines in the first place!

Oh, wait a minute, I can feel another invention coming on... sensors under the middle of the road that detect a car passing over them and cameras in the cats' eyes to record the offence...

How about training bikers how to overtake safely instead?
When even the IAM/RoSPA officially tell you that you must not break the speed limit to overtake, thus leaving any proper training on overtaking out of reach to most riders, it's little wonder that so many kill themselves through a poorly judged overtake.
You certainly won't be able to "encourage" bikers to give up pushing their machines to the limits on public roads; personally I find it a little concerning that he equates people riding beyond their ability with exceeding the speed limit by 30mph. Nobody's ability is defined by a speed limit.
Besides which, if bikers want to take risks with their own lives, that's their own business. Our accidents usually don't hurt anyone else. Surely the whole reason behind policing the roads is to make sure that one party's actions don't endanger innocent bystanders - when you're trying to force people to act a certain way "for their own good", how is that any different to having the police turn up at a track day and prosecuting people for dangerous riding?
Personally I choose to be "safe-and-skilled-quick", rather than "reckless quick" because I value my life. But as long as the people who are happy to keep crashing on country bends aren't taking anybody else with them, I don't see why they should be persecuted for it. Nor those of us who are "safe-and-skilled-quick", because someone who has never ridden a motorbike but has a fancy badge and title apparently has a better idea than us of how to ride one safely.

Does this mean that if you come up behind a push bike, you cannot legally overtake it for 20 miles?

Now come on!

Or I suppose that if anyone does overtake they'd be so close to put the cyclist in danger.

About 25 years ago I was given a ticket after a policecar stop for crossing a double white line to overtake a JCB going up the hill south on the A24 out of Dorking. There cannot have been any evidence of how fast the digger was going. Has this exemption been around for a long while? Is the JCB a "Road maintenance vehicle"?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

No overtaking (at all, apart from the normal exemptions?) on a 20 mile stretch? Absolutely ridiculous.

North Yorkshire Police have taken leave of their senses if they're supporting this.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

I used to sit on my bike in traffic and not cross the white lines then I happened to read the highway code again.

I had the pleasure of crossing white lines and passing several stationary traffic pol at the roadworks just west of Duxford on the A505 last week

That's why 2 wheels are best (In good weather at least).

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Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert

It is not only the North Yorkshire Police, over here on the road between Willebroek and Dendermonde (in B) a stroke of some 25km is white lined, and with a speed limit of 70km/hr. No idea why they did that.
Bikers have their own bikerspath, there are practicaly no crossings (some 3 on 25 km), you drive in between the fields most of the time.
That road used to be the road to my parents. Out of pure frustration I changed it. Now I go over Antwerp. It is an extra 20km, but worth while.

Careful, Mole! Not so long ago someone round here did just that - but in doing so overtook an off-duty policeman on his way to Minehead police station. He was, of course, nicked.

Silly b****r. But there are far too many double whites on this particular road - were put there shortly after the county council's bonkers, confusing and inappropriate speed limits on that road were kicked into touch (draw your own conclusions).

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Save a cow - eat a vegetarian