Most road striping that drivers encounter on a day-to-day basis is simple. Yellow lines to divide the middle of the road, dotted lines to indicate lanes that can be crossed and white lines to stop at intersections rarely cause any confusion in traffic.
However, there is some road striping that is commonly misunderstood and it can lead to dangerous situations on the roads. Last week, the Flowery Branch Police Department took to Facebook to remind drivers about goring, which is yellow horizontal striping across a section of roadway that indicates no vehicle traffic.
Flowery Branch Police Sergeant Dalton Hall says they still see drivers using the goring as a center turning lane.
"It's not designed to be able to drive through. It's designed to be able to block off that area to traffic," Hall said.
Hall said center turn lanes themselves are also commonly misunderstood by drivers.
"You're not supposed to travel more than 300 feet through the center turn lane. We see people treat those as a passing lane or they just get in it and ride for several hundred feet," Hall said.
Hall said drivers will often ask the police department why certain road striping isn't changed, but Flowery Branch Public Works Director Bill Whidden said that can be a complicated process.
"It's not something that can be done overnight because there are a lot of things that are taken into consideration," Whidden. "Plus the fact that people are used to flying through some place with everything being as it was and maybe they go through there every day. You come through there and change something and you're also causing problems."
Hall said if a driver has any questions about a type of road striping, they can contact the police department for information or instruction.
To hear more from Sgt. Dalton Hall and Flowery Branch Public Works Director Bill Whidden, click play on the video above.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2021/2/980624/the-fast-lane-road-striping-misunderstandings