here’s a web-cam of what I assume is a typical British street
Can someone please explain why the lanes are marked with zig-zag stripes, and not straight lines? It sure looks weird to a foreigner.
After all, cars drive in straight lines. When I drive, I tend to keep the car in my lane and parallel to the stripes.It’s just kind of intuitive, and doesn’t take much thought, ya know. I think I would find it disorienting to have all those zigging and zagging stripes wooshing past my window.
(And that’s without mentioning the whole business of driving on the wrong side of the street )
*although it is not just any street–it’s Abbey Road , from the Beatles album cover.
An area in suburban D.C. tried something similar, the theory being that changing the lines to zig-zag would get drivers’ attention and disrupt them enough to get them to pay more attention and slow down in that area.
In the UK I am guessing this is more a matter of convention and driver training rather than cognitive psychology, but I dunno.
Isn’t there also special striping in England indicating not to stop within that area (“don’t block the box”)?
According to a friend who works for the DMV equivalent in Wales, zigzag lane lines indicate “no parking” areas – and the center line between lanes of traffic mimics the curbside (kerbside?) lines to reinforce the message (in case the other lines are obscured, for example).
What Dog80 said. Some crossings in Australia use a similar system. Instead of making the lane lines zigzag, in Australia they place another zigzag line in the middle of the lane. I couldn’t find a photograph of it, so i copied this image from the New South Wales driver handbook.
They mean no stopping, rather than no parking (They often appear outside schools so the area is clear for children to cross). The exceptions of course are giving way and breaking down.
Edit: They’re not there to tell you a pedestrian crossing is coming up.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the date on which The Beatles crossed Abbey Road for the photo on the cover of the eponymous album. The road was closed for one hour while the world and his wife turned up to replicate the proceedings of 8 August 1969.
But they certainly serve that purpose, given that white zig-zag lines seem to be used alongside pedestrian crosswalks. If the UK Highway Code’s Road Markings leaflet (PDF) is any indication, zig-zag lines outside school entrances are marked in yellow.
They have those here in Virginia. They mark the W&OD trail. It throws you off the first time you see it, but after that, it’s just another marking. My friend likes to goof off when he crosses it - he zigzags the car, trying to mimic the lines.
I think you are not supposed to cross the road in the area marked by the zig-zags, only on the actual crossing. But the main purpose of the zig-zags is to provide a zone of good visibility each side of the crossing so that drivers can see if anyone is waiting to cross.
I found it amusing that a software engineer might have slipped a little homage into the site too when I noticed a while back.
To the OP, I guess disorientating might serve to be a warning. Much like how I guess the lines dividing lanes on a motorway are laid down differently to help keep drivers flowing a little better where the road may diverge or merge (like this).
They are there to tell you that a pedestrian crossing is coming up - you don’t get white zigzags anywhere other than at a zebra, pelican or other type of pedestrian crossing. Of course they don’t mean ‘no stopping’ - the point is that vehicles must stop at a zebra crossing if a pedestrian is using it, or at other crossings if the light is not green. Giving way doesn’t come into it since you rarely get these markings at places where vehicles will be pulling out. I wonder if you’re getting confused with areas painted with white hatching, which means your vehicle is not supposed to enter that area.
As I said above, this is to provide a clear zone of vision each side of the crossing. This prevents the scenario where a motorist is suddenly confronted with a pedestrian emerging behind a parked car and walking onto the crossing.
Could everyone please stop giving accurate information about this? Or at least can we close this thread and lock it?
There are always a few tourists near Abbey Road. If they notice the zig-zag lines, we (Londoners) prefer to keep a straight face and say these very rare and special markings are used by the National Heritage Association to denote one of four things: the site of an historical battle, any site where the Queen has slept, anything associated with Jane Austen or a site known to be associated with the Beatles.
The tourists always go away perfectly satisfied with this ‘information’.
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