On the approach to this roundabout, we have a section of road that’s a different color.

It sort of looks like the pavement, but it’s not the pavement. This is known as an overrun area.

They can be placed around the roundabout, and you can also find them on chicanes and islands designed to make the road more narrow.

Purpose

What is the purpose of these overrun areas? Well, from the horse’s mouth—the Department for Transport—they state that overrun areas are used to create the optical illusion that the usable carriageway is narrower than it actually is.

These areas may be employed on bends to encourage car drivers to keep to a low speed, but still allow sufficient room for larger vehicles to negotiate them.

Similarly, they can be used at junctions, particularly roundabouts, to deflect traffic away from a straight-ahead and faster path, where the overrun area allows larger vehicles to negotiate the junction without problems.

So, essentially, an overrun area is a traffic calming measure.

It’s designed to encourage you to take a path that requires a slower speed. To go around this overrun area, I need to slow down enough to steer around it, which naturally reduces my speed.

If I were to drive straight across it, I could go much faster.

Driving Test

Although driving in an overrun area isn’t illegal in itself, you should still avoid them. They’re there to deflect traffic into a slower pathway and reduce the speed of vehicles in that area—they’re a traffic calming measure.

On your driving test, if the examiner sees you drive in an overrun area, that in itself isn’t necessarily a fail.

But if they decide that your position is unsafe or misleading, or that you’re driving too quickly for the situation, then you may fail. Similarly, if the police see you driving very quickly straight across an overrun area, although driving in the overrun area isn’t illegal, they may consider your driving careless or dangerous.

This means you could get a fine, points on your license, or you could even end up in court.

Large Vehicles

If you’re driving a vehicle that’s too large to go around the overrun area, you should still try to go around it to reduce your speed.

However, if your vehicle is too big, you may need to use some or even all of the overrun area.

For example, avoiding the overrun area when I’m turning right at this mini-roundabout means that I have a sharper right turn, which forces me to go slower so I can make the turn easily.

It’s important, though, before making that turn, to check my right mirror because there is quite a bit of space on my right where a bicycle or moped could try to pass me.

I’m now approaching a traffic calming measure, which is the chicane. It’s like an island in the middle of the road with curbs that stick out. To avoid both the chicane and the overrun area, I need to go slowly.

Plus, we’ve got the school crossing patrol person there, which is likely why the traffic calming measure is in place—to slow traffic down in an area where kids are likely to be crossing the road.

Not an Overrun Area

An area of road that has white diagonal lines bordered by a single white broken line is not an overrun area.

Overrun areas are there to encourage you not to drive over them. The white markings are to tell you not to drive over them.

These markings are here because this mini-roundabout used to have two lanes, but that proved unsafe, so they used white markings to make it one lane. Since the bordering line is broken, you can enter this area, but only if it’s necessary and you can see it’s safe to do so.

If the bordering line were solid, then you must not enter the area except in an emergency.

Likewise, the road markings you’re about to see at the roundabout are not an overrun area. These are white diagonal lines bordered by a solid white line and highlighted in red; I must not enter this area except in an emergency.

Interesting Facts

There are some interesting facts about overrun areas.

They should not be used where pedestrians are likely to cross the road.

Although at this overrun area, there is a place for pedestrians to cross the road, and that’s because they kind of look like the pavement, but they’re not the pavement—they are part of the road.

As they look like the pavement, a pedestrian may stand in the overrun area and therefore be on the road while checking if it’s safe to cross.

Most overrun areas are less than six inches above the rest of the road.

This allows a cyclist to cycle over it safely in case they’re forced to by other traffic. There are no specific signs for overrun areas, but they should be a contrasting color to the rest of the road and should be used in areas with street lamps for visibility at night.

However, that doesn’t mean they have to be placed only in such areas.