Road Safety Road Rules 2017
138Keeping off a painted island
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138 Keeping off a painted island
Rule 138(1) amended by S.R. Nos 35/2021 rule 7(1), 135/2021 rule 49(1).
(1) A driver must not drive on or over a single continuous line, or 2 parallel continuous lines, along a side of or surrounding a painted island, except as permitted under this rule, rule 139(4) or 144A(2).
2 Rule 139 deals with avoiding obstructions on a road.
Note 3 to rule 138(1) inserted by S.R. No. 35/2021 rule 7(2), amended by S.R. No. 135/2021 rule 49(2).
3 Rule 144A(2) deals with driving on or over a single continuous line, or 2 parallel continuous lines (other than 2 continuous yellow lines parallel to tram tracks), along a side of or surrounding a painted island to pass a bicycle or an electric scooter.
Painted island surrounded by 2 parallel continuous lines.
In this example, vehicle B is contravening the rule.
(2) A driver may drive on or over a single continuous line along the side of or surrounding a painted island for up to 50 metres—
(b) to enter a turning lane that begins immediately after the painted island; or
(c) to enter a part of the road of one kind from a part of the road of another kind (for example, moving to or from a service road or emergency stopping lane); or
(d) to park in angle parking on the opposite side of the road provided that the driver does not need to perform a U-turn to reach the parking area.
1 Angle parking, parking area, service road, turning lane and U-turn are defined in the dictionary. Emergency stopping lane is defined in rule 95.
2 Rule 85 deals with the give way rules applying to a driver entering a turning lane from a painted island and rule 197 deals with stopping on painted islands.
3 Subrule (3) excludes certain painted islands from the application of paragraph (a).
(3) Subrule (2)(a) does not apply in the case of a painted island—
(a) that separates a road that takes vehicles in one direction from another road that takes vehicles in the same direction at a place where the roads merge; or
(b) that separates one part of a road from other parts of the road to create a slip lane.