This paper describes an image processing algorithm capable of recognizing road lanes by using a CDF(cumulative distribution function). The CDF is designed for the model function of road lanes. Based on the assumptions that there are no abrupt changes in the direction and location of road lanes and that the intensity of lane boundaries differs from that of the background, we formulated the CDF, which accumulates the edge magnitude for edge directions. The CDF has distinctive peak points at the vicinity of lane directions due to the directional and the positional continuities of a lane. To obtain lane-related information a scatter diagram was constructed by collecting edge pixels, of which the direction corresponds to the peak point of the CDF, then the principal axis-based line fitting was performed for the scatter diagram. Noises can cause many similar features to appear and to disappear in an image. Therefore, to reduce the noise effect a recursive estimator of the CDF was introduced, and also to prevent false alarms or miss detection a scene understanding index (DUI) was formulated by the statistical parameters of the CDF. The proposed algorithm has been implemented in real time on video data obtained from a test vehicle driven on a typical highway.