White Lines

  

White Lines

Did you know white lines were ‘invented’ by the Romans who would place white painted stones in the middle of carriageways in busy market towns to control traffic? 

Whatever did the Romans do for us, eh? 

It was ‘re-invented’ at the advent of urban congestion in early Victorian times. Believe it or not London, Norwich, York and Bristol were so congested due to lack of lane discipline, there were queues through the busy centres.

The use of white lines has moved on somewhat since then. 

Solid white lines should never be crossed on a motorway, nor hatched areas. 

But wait. The hard shoulder has a solid white line. And service vehicles park on hatched refuges for safety.

Solid white lines should never be crossed on highways either. Well, the central white line shouldn’t, those in the channels and those outlining hatched areas only outline a feature. Oh and hatching on highways can be crossed too.

Confusing? Well you probably work in the industry, so have at least a basic understanding of it. Imagine the average driver.

But do we really need all these white lines? Currently I wonder whether local authorities all got bought a ‘Whitelining machine’ by Santa over the past couple of years. Wherever there’s an empty black space, it gets filled with hatching. Have a look and ask yourself, ‘Is that needed?’ or ‘What are they trying to advise me?’ After all, hatching on most roads are advisory, and do not stand-up in courts as a mandatory direction under regulations.

What is the point of this hatching?

Why is a traffic lane filled with hatching?

Then, imagine all the way back to Victorian times. White lines were put down to allow persons to pass on each other’s right-hand side. So we’ve had 4 or 5 generations to learn about white lining. It’s in our psyche. So do we need all of them? Certainly hatching in the middle of roads is not needed unless it’s advising you of a right turn bay coming up. It should not be used to separate opposing traffic as the hatched area becomes a no-mans-land, and could be used by both vehicles at the same time travelling towards each other. In Poole hatching is not used on approaches to central refuges, and it looks very smart and tidy – and works. In Wiltshire, on low speed straight roads, no central markings are used, and it slows vehicles down.

We know what side of the road to drive on. Even the ‘Johnny Foreigner’ understands it. Having no white lines slows vehicles down, and brings back eye contact and human interaction. Sure you’ll get the odd idiot who may crash, but we shouldn’t always design for those with a lack of driving skills or common sense.

So let’s try and encourage councils to take up white lines, or at least when they resurface, to redesign or at least reconsider whether all the white lines need replacing. 

Let’s follow Wiltshire and Poole’s examples, it looks nicer, and slows vehicles down, and no one wanders onto the wrong side of the road wondering where to drive.

Well there’s probably always one. Line or no line!

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