Paul Folbrecht wrote:



As I was taxiing, I was about to cross 21, then recalled that the ATIS
had called 18 and 21 as active. I stopped, hard, but my nosegear was
over the hold line - in fact my mains were pretty much on the hold line.
I think it's important to note that the controller had not told me to
hold short of 21. If she had, then obviously this would have been a
pretty flagrant violation.

Actually it wouldn't have been. In order for you to be on the runway,
from the controllers point of view, you have to cross the white edge
line on the runway. The hold short lines don't determine anything for a
controller.



And, unless the controller deliberately wanted to make
me believe nothing was wrong for some reason, I believe she either
didn't notice I was over the hold (this intersection is pretty close to
the tower) or didn't care.

At my last facility, GFK, we didn't really know exactly where they were.
They serve no purpose to a controller.