Along the highways you will find stripes. All of these stripes have a meaning depicted by their size and color. Most of us know the meanings but I sure have witnessed a lot of these rules broken as I ride so I want to take a moment and define them. Feel free to add more if you wish.
Colors
A while lane-dividing line means the traffic on the road surface you are currently on is flowing in one direction (hopefully the same direction you are going). When the line is white you have to be on the lookout for cars approaching from the rear before changing lanes. That is not to neglect traffic ahead of you.
A yellow dividing line depicts two way traffic, if you cross the yellow dividing line be aware of approaching traffic from the front as well as the rear.
A broken line marks a lane where changing over to the other side of the lane is acceptable if it is clear to do so.
A solid line on your side means it is not acceptable to cross the line.
When riding down the far right lane you may notice the broken line getting smaller and more frequent. Guess what! There is a solid lane coming and if you do not want to turn you are going to! Check to see if you can get one lane over to the left. If you can and you don’t want to turn, get to the left while the lane is still broken. Otherwise you will be at the John Wayne Airport.
I make it a strong rule to never cross a solid line. I see it happen all the time by both bikes and cars, which is the reason for this simple post. Many people must not know this.
Once while riding with Sunman in Canada we rolled to a stoplight behind another car that was already stopped. Sonny rolled up to me and asked why I did not change into the clear lane. I pointed at the solid white line and said “Solid Line”. He nodded his head that he understood.
Many places will reinforce the lines with signs saying no passing and such but please look at the lines you are riding by. That broken line that becomes smaller and more frequent has saved me from taking the wrong exit many a time. If you do not know the area you are riding through especially.
In some areas such as Phoenix the HOV lane is marked with two solid white lines and there is never a break in them. I sure hope these are an exception to the do not cross rule. In California the HOV lane is marked with two solid yellow lines even though the traffic on either side of the line is flowing in the same direction. California has clearly marked enter and exit places for their HOV lane so I do not cross the solid lines there. (Unless I am splitting lanes)
Added tidbit,
On surface streets, ever see a blue Botts dot in the center of the road? This means there is a fire hydrant there.
