Solid yellow line beside a broken yellow line

How to read it

The MUTCD calls it the one-direction no-passing zone marking: crossing the centre line to pass with care is permitted for traffic traveling adjacent to the broken line, and prohibited for traffic adjacent to the solid line. It marks a no-passing zone for one direction only. The Manual's diagram of no-passing zones at curves notes that the zones for opposite directions might or might not overlap, depending on the road's alignment. Pennsylvania's and Oregon's manuals describe it the same way, by which line is on the driver's side of the road.

Also searched as: no passing zone line, one solid one broken yellow line.

Which line applies to which lane

The line nearer the driver's own lane is the one that applies. Florida's handbook puts it in terms of the driver's side: solid on the right (“your side”) means passing is not allowed in that lane, and broken on the right means passing is permitted. It adds that a driver with the solid line on their side may still turn left, or pass a bicyclist, when it is safe.

This describes the national standard and the named states' manuals. It isn't legal advice: the law of the state where the road is decides.

Look-alikes

Two solid lines (Double solid yellow line) prohibit passing in both directions. A two-way left-turn lane uses the same solid-and-broken pair, but on both sides of a centre lane, with the broken lines facing the lane between them.