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Road Rant: Double Yellow Lines

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From chrissy coleman, Featured Contributor
Posted on July 17, 2008

I mean it. Don't cross those lines.

Everyone's got a road pet peeve. For some, the absence of a turn signal from the driver in front of them brings the ire, and for others maybe it's the slow-going cell phone gabber who drives just a hair under the speed limit and is oblivious to the world outside their car. For me, it's the violators of the double-yellow line that get me worked up.

For those who slept through the Department of Motor Vehicles driver's license written test, the double-yellow line is painted on to streets and roadways where making a left-hand turn or passing could be dangerous. A solid, double-yellow line is not an optional "do not turn or pass"—it's a violation to cross over; even more so when your illegal turn or pass causes an accident. Alternatively, in an area where it is safe to make a left-hand turn or pass someone in front of you, the yellow line will be dashed. The dashed line is optional—when it's safe to go in your estimation, make that turn or pass.

Each day I hear my pet peeve in action from the brake squeals of another near-accident in an intersection just around the corner from where I live. A Bank of America was put in about a year ago, and now everybody and their cousin violates double-yellow lines instead of driving around the block to turn into the lot legally, much to chagrin of drivers behind them who approach from an intersection on a green light with only 15 feet left to brake. Compound that with no blinker on that double-yellow jumper and that's when insurance gets involved and front ends and bumpers need bodywork.

Double-yellow lines: Please don't cross them.

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chrissy coleman is a featured contributor for vLane.