You pass a circular sign with a red border showing a black car overtaking a red car. According to Rule 165 of the Highway Code, until when does the restriction shown by this sign apply?
- Until you have driven past three sets of road markings
- Until you pass a sign that specifically cancels the restriction
- For exactly one mile beyond the sign unless another distance plate is fitted
- Only while continuous double white lines are painted in the centre of the road
Why B? And why not the others?
Correct answer: B. Until you pass a sign that specifically cancels the restriction
This sign is the 'No overtaking' order: a red-bordered circle showing a black car in the process of overtaking a red car, one of the small number of UK regulatory signs that uses a picture of vehicles rather than a symbol or number. Rule 165 of the Highway Code states plainly that a driver must not overtake after this sign until passing a sign that specifically cancels the restriction. The suggestion of driving past three sets of road markings invents a rule that does not exist for this sign; road markings are a separate system governed by their own rules, not linked to this order. A fixed one-mile limit is also invented — some prohibitions do carry a distance plate, but the default for this sign, absent such a plate, is that it holds until formally cancelled, not a set distance. Tying the restriction to double white lines confuses two different systems: the overtaking ban shown by this sign is independent of whatever lane markings happen to be painted on that stretch of road.
Source: The Highway Code: Rule 165 (Overtaking, GOV.UK); DfT Know Your Traffic Signs — Regulatory signs (No overtaking)