A solid yellow line runs along your side of the lane divider. May you cross it to pass the vehicle ahead?
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A.
Yes, if oncoming traffic is clear for 500 feet.
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B.
Yes, if you can complete the pass within two seconds.
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C.
No, passing is prohibited where a solid yellow line is in your lane. Correct
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D.
Yes, if the vehicle ahead is going well below the posted speed.
The answer is "No, passing is prohibited where a solid yellow line is in your lane."
The manual lists a solid yellow line in the driver's lane among places where passing is always unsafe and usually illegal. The marking itself is the prohibition, with no sight-distance or speed condition that opens a window to cross it. Choice A pulls the 500-foot figure from the hill-and-curve item on the same no-passing list and treats it as a universal green light to pass, but that distance applies to blind crests and curves, not to a lane whose marking has already said no.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Yes, if oncoming traffic is clear for 500 feet.
The 500-foot rule belongs to the hill-and-curve item on the no-passing list; it does not override a solid yellow line in your lane. Lifts the 500-foot sight distance from the hill-and-curve rule and applies it to a yellow-line prohibition the manual states with no sight-distance exception.
B. Yes, if you can complete the pass within two seconds.
The two-second rule is about following distance behind the vehicle ahead, not a time budget that unlocks a pass across a solid yellow line. Confuses the two-second following rule with a passing allowance.
D. Yes, if the vehicle ahead is going well below the posted speed.
A slow vehicle ahead does not override a lane-marking prohibition; the manual says the slow driver should pull over to let traffic pass, not that you may cross a solid yellow line. Carries over the frustrated-driver habit of treating a slowpoke as a free pass, when the responsibility the manual assigns runs the other way: the slow driver yields, the driver behind waits for a legal passing zone.
This question tests your knowledge of Road Markings in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Chapter 4, Passing: Places where passing is always unsafe and usually illegal," p.55..
Related North Carolina questions
- A solid yellow line in your lane tells you what? →
- Between opposing lanes, a double-solid yellow line means what about passing? →
- On a three-lane highway, where does the manual say you may pass? →
- The three-lane passing rule has one exception. What is it? →
- What should you observe to choose the appropriate lane before entering a multi-lane roundabout? →
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