Philistine wrote:I have always understood that double white lines were painted along the middle of the road when the curvature and undulations of that road made it imperative that you never stray from your own side.
They are about passing. And passing another vehicle at or near the speed limit, with perhaps a 20kph difference in vehicle speeds. ("Straying" is prohibited regardless of road markings)
With the increase in nannyism the lines keep expanding well beyond "imperative" to just about anywhere that bad things might happen, perhaps. (According to one blogger, some parts of the US have got so bad you can't legally pass for dozens of miles at a time.)
Traditionally, sane motorists ignored the prohibition when slowly passing slow moving traffic (e.g. tractors and road plant). And sane cops would ignore these "transgressions". However this was always one of the whining points for the anti-passing crowd.
From where I sit it's nice to see sane exemptions explicitly making it into the regulations. Even if it does make them longer.