Is it allowed to put off a passenger on the road where a solid yellow line is drawn on the top surface of the curb and a "Stop is prohibited" sign is placed?

Explanation

Prohibited.

The solid yellow line drawn along the top of the kerb marks on the ground the zone of effect of the "stopping prohibited" sign. The two mean the same thing and repeat each other: within this zone even a brief stop is not permitted. Setting down a passenger is impossible without stopping, so that act falls within the same prohibition.

Keep the difference between "stopping prohibited" and "parking prohibited" exactly in mind, because most mistakes come from there. Where parking is prohibited, you may still stop to pick up or set down passengers or to load. But where stopping is prohibited, even standing for a few seconds is an offence, and its only exceptions are forced stops, such as stopping behind traffic or on an officer's order.

The safety reason for this strictness goes back to where the sign is fitted. This sign is usually posted at points where a stopped car blinds the view or blocks the width of passage: near a junction, on a bend, in front of entrances, or on a street that has only one lane. A passenger who gets out there enters the carriageway from within the flow and in a blind spot, and your stopped car forces the drivers behind to swerve suddenly into the adjacent lane. To set down a passenger you must drive on to the end of the sign's zone.

• "Allowed" assumes a brief stop is an exception, whereas the "stopping prohibited" sign targets precisely that brief stop. • The absence of public-transport vehicles creates no exception; the sign's validity does not depend on the presence or absence of other vehicles. • This option ties the restriction to public transport, whereas for a private driver the prohibition is absolute and covers setting down a passenger as well.

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