Driving along the A12 today I saw the traffic slowing down up ahead. When I reached the slow point I saw a large blue skip lying in the outside lane!

And just down the road a skip lorry was stopped on the verge and the driver was talking sheepishly into a mobile phone.

When people say the 'outside' lane, I never know whether they mean the outside or the inside one, because different people seem to use the terms differently, and sometimes the same people use them interchangeably.

I prefer the much clearer 'slow, fast, fastest' formula.

I can never remember which the near side is.

Nearside = inside = passenger side = 'slow' lane = left (in UK)
Offside = outside = driver's side = 'fast' lane = right (ditto)

I avoided using the slow/fast terminology because the right-hand lane isn't always for overtaking/going faster. For example when the lanes go to different destinations.

Fangirl Three wrote:

Nearside = inside = passenger side = 'slow' lane = left (in UK)
Offside = outside = driver's side = 'fast' lane = right (ditto)

I avoided using the slow/fast terminology because the right-hand lane isn't always for overtaking/going faster. For example when the lanes go to different destinations.

Well yes, technically/legally that's correct, but I find a headlights and horn combo usually clears up any confusion in those obstructing the road ahead.

That precise formula is what confuses me - why is the lane nearest the outside of the road called the 'inside' lane? It seems completely counterintuitive.

It makes no sense. The inside must surely be the middle bit, while moving outside should mean literally moving towards the outside of the road, over the side of which there is no road.

Going from left to right on this diagram, I see the following: hard shoulder - outside lane - middle lane - inside lane - central reservation - inside lane, middle lane, outside lane, hard shoulder.



Yet most British people don't see it that way, which is one of life's great puzzles imo.

If you are looking at a cross section of a sandwich, the bread isn't 'inside' the filling.

I see what you're getting at. But 'inside' definitely means the left. As in 'overtaking on the inside'.

I wonder if it comes from horse racing? The majority of British racecourses are anti-clockwise (left-handed) so if a horse was coming up on you on the inside of the bend it would be to the left of you.

I plan to traverse Junction 10 again today

Fangirl Three wrote:

I plan to traverse Junction 10 again today

How did it go? I went over a couple of days ago from east to west and I think we were put onto the new bridge - at least there was more of a bend in the roundabout than there used to be, but with all the hoarding and boarding and cones and temporary markings and things it was all quite discombobulating.

It went very smoothly thank you. I was looking up at the bridges and trying to work out where the nibbler thing had been doing its nibbling.

Then I stopped at Butterfield Services Hilton Park Services for the first time. A charming spot, with an actual postbox.

I bought my lunch and consumed the fork-requiring part of it in the car park while appreciating the sunny weather and green trees. The sandwich and crisps I subsequently consumed while driving - my tactic is to find a lorry or caravan and drive behind it while I eat, so I don't have to do any tricky manoeuvres.

It is very important btw to pop the crisps open before you start driving, as you just can't do it with one hand. I have some little plastic containers on the passenger seat where I place opened sandwich and crisp packages ready for consumption.

That's very clever. The same reason as a driver not to buy sweets for a journey if they have wrappers on.

You can open crisps when driving. If you don't want to use your teeth and one hand because you are worried about using too much force and ending up covered in crisps, you can simply use your knees as a vice and use one hand to open the bag.

You can also eat a yoghurt, or something like a bowl of pasta quite safely, by placing the pot securely between your thighs - although only at consistently high speed or in an automatic. It wouldn't reliably work with the logistics of gear changes.

I'm wondering if this thread should come with a legal disclaimer.

Butterfield wrote:

The same reason as a driver not to buy sweets for a journey if they have wrappers on.

Absolutely. I remember an epic struggle to open a Tesco chocolate lime by holding one end of the wrapper between my teeth and twisting the other with one hand, while trying to avoid accidentally driving into a line of cones.

I don't think I've had a chocolate lime since my brother bought a bag of them on the way back from Cornwall circa 1990.