Common sense basically!
Unless forbidden otherwise, you are allowed to over take as long as you stay to the right of the solid line. There is even a federal court case which says you must wait or otherwise asses the situation and see if the vehicle does not move within reasonable time (which can be a few minutes).
BGE 6B_782/2007 and other.
Your son is wrong and mixes up two similar but different situations. A solid line and an overtaking ban. These are not the same, can even be combined. A solid line is holy, cannot be touched, but overtaking is allowed. The exemption mentioned only applies to overtaking bans Art. 26 SSV but not to solid lines.
Not as they fit please, but they have the priority when leaving from a bus stop. Or as it says in the traffic rules ordinance:
That’s what you get when socialist, the far left, and the greens are not part of the city government, nor have the majority in the city parliament for more than 30 consecutive years : https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemein…rische_Gruppen
Allergene note: Contains sarcasm, irony, and traces of satire.
This is largely a shared space were cycling is allowed.
Switzerland is full of lovely contradictions.
The finance and cocaine city of Zürich has indeed been ruled by a left coalition for years. Nevertheless, traffic restrictions, cycle lanes, pedestrian areas etc have only been realised after huge opposition from the right. I was really disappointed by the cycle lanes in the centre of the city but was probably not helped by being unfamiliar with them.
My main point about the shared spaces was that they work if the people want to make them work.
Just be sensible re security of the cyclist, don't do it on crowded roads. Overtaking stopped bus is exactly the same, happens everywhere, in the city, outside, literally everybody does it. People having anxiety over this??? How do you deal with tons of other, actually serious stuff that life throws at us every day?
It is also "common sense" that you can go up to 5 km/h above the speed limit when overtaking on the highway (maybe even 10?). In that case, the worst thing that can happen is that you are unlucky and get a 20-60 CHF normal fine. So, it seems quite ok, although I personally almost always only overtake vehicles that go below the posted limit (e.g. trucks, etc..).
On the other hand, the case of solid lines seems pretty different to me, as the worst case is not a normal fine (Ordungsbusse), but the next level (whatever it is called), with a couple of months of stress and headaches and anxiety and concern, before we even get into the higher costs (which is to me currently less of a concern compared to my mental health).
I don't know how to deal with that, or how any other driver deals with that (particularly those of you who live in smaller towns with many solid lines in "ausserort" roads). Maybe I should just accept it as someone mentioned above.
But I'm pretty sure I will never ever cross a solid line to overtake a cyclist or anything, unless a police officer is there and explicitly orders me to do so
P.S. And then I may film the officer giving me the order, just in case (assuming it is legal).
The UK has recently passed new laws giving pedestrians, cyclists and horse-riders more protection and giving them extra safety margins enshrined in law.
For example, there is a minimum distance requirement of 1.5m when overtaking a cyclist which increases at speeds over 30Mph.
Here in Switzerland there is no minimum distance requirement and so if a cyclist is cycling along a road where there is a solid white line in the middle of the road, the motorist will either wait for a few seconds behind the cyclist until the solid line has passed and then overtake, or try and squeeze through with potentially dangerous consequences.
The federal laws are made in Bern.
The Bernese worry because the rest of Switzerland interprets them how they like
The people from Zürich take it all much too seriously.
The French speaking Swiss are stubborn egotists who do what they always have done
The people from the Wallis/Ticino/Graubunden just chuckle at the insanity of it all
The people from Zug are too busy making money to listen
In the UK there is no such law. The Police have said that four cyclists cycling two-abreast take up the same space as one car and if you are giving them enough room when you overtake, then there really isn't much difference between the width of one bike compared with two.
Four cyclists in a row is like overtaking a 7.5t lorry in length.
You have to calm down and ask yourself, is it easier to overtake a car or a lorry?
Reality check:
I think the drivers who use their BMWs as weapons are more of a danger to both cyclists and pedestrians.
You may cross any solid white line in an emergency -ensuring you are extremely vigilant as you do so.
If the Police see you and decide it wasn't such an emergency - depending on the nature of the solid white line (edge of carriageway/lane divider), you will be fined accordingly and then your only recourse is to take it up with a judge.
Hypothetical examples: *
You need to pee and pull over across the motorway carriageway edge white line to park on the hard shoulder: A fine.
You are the driver and are having a suspected heart attack and pull over across the carriageway edge white line to park on the hard shoulder: Most likely ok (apart from the heart attack).
You miss your turning off the motorway and pull across the junction's solid white line lane divider to get to the off slip road: A Fine.
You overtake a lorry across solid white lines on a narrow winding road in a gorge: A Fine.
A lorry has jack-knifed across the road in front. Traffic is still moving around the lorry - across a solid white line lane divider. You proceed past the lorry too. No fine.
Motorists need to make judgement calls the whole time. If they aren't then they probably shouldn't be behind the wheel.
*Do not use as a legal defence.
In HIAO's words, solid white lines are not that holy. An orange masking tape overrides them