Legal query - CPZ bay markings

[Richard J.]

I'm trying to understand the legal requirements for marking out residents' parking bays in a Controlled Parking Zone, and in particular where a double transverse line (at right-angles to the kerb) is needed, as shown at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si2002/023113bm.gif .

 

On one side of my road in London there is a long series of bays interspersed with yellow-line loading gaps. (A to B on the diagram below.) The bays are several car lengths long and are undivided. At one end (A) the first bay starts with a double transverse line.

 

[--- = kerb line]

 

 

................|....|

................|...H|

----------------......----------------

...............G......F...........E..D|

.....................................|

A................................B..C|

--------------------------------------

 

I understand that the other end of a series of bays needs to have a double transverse line too, but the other end of this road is a cul-de-sac. The last bay is terminated with a single transverse line at B, then the yellow line runs around the end of the road (B-C-D-E) and is followed by more bays between E and F. There are no raised kerbs between C and D.

 

Questions:

1. Is this arrangement legal, or should the last bay before the dead end have a double line (at B)?

 

2. If it is legal, and the series of bays is deemed to continue back up the road on the other side, what happens where a side road joins this road? Does the series of bays continue along the main road (via G), or does it follow the yellow line round the corner and along the side road (via H)? The answer would affect where double transverse lines are required.

[Richard J.]

The bays are several car lengths long and are undivided. At one end (A) the first bay starts with a double transverse line. ... I understand that the other end of a series of bays needs to have a double transverse line too

 

I realise now that this was all based on a mistaken belief, based on how my CPZ is laid out, that groups of residents' bays need to have double transverse lines at each end. But in fact that applies only to groups of individual single-vehicle bays, usually metered or pay-and-display. Looking at another thread, I found a link to Richard Bentley's site Making a challenge which put me right.

 

A walk around my local grid of streets revealed 23 instances of illegal double transverse lines at the ends of undivided bays. Unfortunately, these didn't include the one I was parked in when I got a PCN!

[green_and_mean]

I realise now that this was all based on a mistaken belief, based on how my CPZ is laid out, that groups of residents' bays need to have double transverse lines at each end. But in fact that applies only to groups of individual single-vehicle bays, usually metered or pay-and-display. Looking at another thread, I found a link to Richard Bentley's site Making a challenge which put me right.

 

A walk around my local grid of streets revealed 23 instances of illegal double transverse lines at the ends of undivided bays. Unfortunately, these didn't include the one I was parked in when I got a PCN!

 

The bays with double end markings were correct prior to the TSRDG 2002 and followed guidance shown in the DoT Traffic Signs Manual. There is nothing to state all road markings had to be legally replaced after 2002 unless being remarked or replaced due to wear or change of restriction.. Only new bays post 2002 have to comply, as far as I understand the law, with the TSRDG 2002.

[Richard J.]

Thanks green_and_mean. The CPZ in question dates from November 2000, so would have used the signs in TSRGD 1994 (as amended).

 

On a related issue, do you know if groups of pay-and-display bays had to have double lines at each end under the 1994 regulations? The diagrams in the schedules are no longer online (unless you know of a copy somehere). There are some bays near me with a double line at one end, but a single line at the other, where it's next to a bus stop. I know that's not allowed under TSRGD 2002, but what about the old regs?

[green_and_mean]

Pre 2002 a double transverse line was used to denote the end of a parking place (in this case a group of meters/ p&d bays). Therefore to avoid getting fined for meter feeding you would have to move across the street or beyond the double transverse line. I guess therefore the bus stop may be on top of the meter restriction as long as there are bays beyond it ending in a double line?

I think that a hard copy of the 1994 version is the only way you will find the diagrams as only the text seems to be online.