Stopped on a double yellow

[PuncturedBicyclette]

DS usually walks to school. Today it was chucking it down, so I drove him. Stopped briefly on double yellows outside the school. NOT on the zigzags. No kerb markings or other signs. As far as I know it's fine to stop (not park) on a double yellow, to let passengers out.

Was there 30 seconds. Stopped, DS got out, I left.

As I was pulling back out, man on bike shouts through my window "Do you know it's f*ing double yellows?". I reply "Yes thank you, I was letting a passenger out". He swears at me again and cycles off.

I'm not doing any thing wrong, am I?

Does this apply to taxi drivers too? Should they find such a space to let a passenger out?

Of course you can let a person out on double yellows, its literally in the highway code. What is selfish is screeching that it might slow you down for a few seconds, instead of thinking of the safety and wellbeing of a child. If you are driving or cycling past a school, and are not prepared to drive slowly and be held up, then you need to consider taking another route. You are not the priority, the children are.

You've done nothing wrong. You were dropping off, not parking.

Honestly OP you have done nothing wrong. I’d forget about it. I think in the 10 years I took my kids the mile to school I can count on my hands how many times I drove them as we always walked it there and back. On a couple of occasions I did it because of monsoon like rain. No umbrella was going to cut it and I didn’t want to get them soaked and have to sit in wet clothes all day. I pulled up as close as I could get to get them inside without being drenched. Didn’t for a second think to park roads away and I expect I pulled onto a double yellow to do so without impeding any other child.

if parent driving/parking is causing massive issues around a school, that is for the school and the council to find a solution. Eg school streets. It isn’t for a person to make a moral judgement when something is legally allowed. I’m not going to go through a massive debate in my head while driving a child in the rain to get to school.

Thinking of which, if I'd sent DS to school in a taxi, I wonder where it would have dropped him off.

I love these threads where people just make up their own rules but then post them so confidently. A quick google shows this is allowed.

I always love these threads for a slightly different reason: several dozen people exclaiming the rules are perfectly clear but all arguing they say different things - so maybe, not THAT clear afterall 😅

You did absolutely nothing wrong. You are allowed to “set down and alight passengers” on double and single yellow lines. Schools seem to think the Highway Code doesn’t apply to them. I cannot believe most people, according to this thread, think you did something Illegal. Drives me mad!

I wasn’t moving the goalposts 😂 just saying schools usually do have restrictions so the double yellow is probs a moot point anyway. I confess I haven’t read all of OPs posts so maybe she was outside the restriction zone, but frankly I don’t care. Everyone annoys everyone on the road, she should just get over it and move on really - don’t you agree?

If people weren’t able to drive along the road where I live two villages plus the one where the school is would be completely cut off.

Although on the plus side at least the cars with kids going to the school wouldn’t be able to block, park on peoples drives and the road and the population of the three villages could get to work. Oh no. We couldn’t as we wouldn’t be able to use the access road either.🤣

It was legal, but it's a twat manoeuvre IMO.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Going the wrong way on a pavement?

OK - how does that work then?

I understand it's legal but how far away was the cyclist behind you? to above i'm a cyclist too and i despise when folk cycle on the pavement walk along with your bike if you are!!

Whether you, legally, can or can't is open to question.(Going from what others have written)

However it does seem that you have inconvenienced/put the passing cyclist in a less safe situation.

Please tell me you didn't overtake him and then a few yards down the road stop on the lines.

I've had this....
Car overtakes, I'm 1m from the kerb, it's barely past me, it stops 1m out and the passenger door opens child exits. I missed - but only just.

Riding 1m out 1m from the kerb and approaching a garage. Car overtakes me, with brake lights on, pulls across in front of me into the garage. This has happen twice - several years apart. First time I got punched as I had to put my hands on the car boot to avoid an accident. Sadly Police CBA to do anything about it.

Alarming how many people don’t know basic Highway Code regs, even in their righteous indignation.

Depends why it’s double yellow, there’s usually a good reason.

If you were increasing the risks to other children by blocking the view where they needed to cross. YABU

If you were blocking the road so other people couldn’t get to school/work YABU

If you were making the road more hazardous for any other user YABU

Popping on to say the highway code is not law

It is a code.

Aggressive man swearing at woman and children and then taking off. Colour me surprised!
No excuse for the aggressive behaviour.

@legominfig
Whether you, legally, can or can't is open to question.(Going from what others have written)

Erm it’s not open for question. What she did is perfectly legal as says the Highway Code. You are allowed at any time day or night to drop off and pick up passengers on single and double yellow lines. And since she dropped off a passenger she did nothing wrong. Are you suggesting the Highway Code is wrong? If you don’t like it write to your MP immediately demand it’s changed, post you response from them on here.

it's people that do twattish things like this that result in roads outside schools being closed to traffic permanently or for a couple of ours every weekday morning and evening.

You're fine. This is what they have red routes for. If they absolutely banned pulling over briefly, they'd have made it a red route instead of double yellows.

Not correct. You can load and unload passengers on DYL, and also load and unload goods.

What on earth was ”twatish” about it? She pulled over safely and let her passenger out then moved on, safely. Call the fucking police!

OP it was just an aggressive cyclist. I’ve been on the receiving end of one of those and didn’t realise that I’d done nothing wrong until I got home. They (probably understandably) get annoyed with lots of motorists and take all their annoyance out on someone who looks unthreatening.

Who cares whether you’re allowed to stop for a few seconds? No-one cares (in the real world).

This is "Am I being unreasonable?" Not "Please go through all the people mentioned in my post and tell me whether they were being unreasonable". And the OP specifically asked whether she did anything wrong.

But seeing as you've asked: the cyclist was being completely unreasonable.

It's always wrong to shout abuse at people, even more so for a man to shout aggressively at a woman trying to keep her child(ren) safe outside a school with lots of other kids in earshot.

The cyclist was also unreasonable to focus on the double yellow lines, as they don't indicate a prohibition on stopping to allow passengers to get out.

He may or may not have had a point about the OP having stopped in a dangerous location blocking sightlines outside the school, or causing an obstruction to the free flow of traffic and holding people up. None of us can judge this on the facts we have in front of us.