The same language with different words / those shirts / euthanasia

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff wrote:
> > The nearside lanes. In other words, in the UK, the left hand lane of
> a three lane road or dual carriageway; the right hand side in
> countries who, just to be different <g>, drive on the right.
> 
> Carol:
> Now I'm confused, because I could have sworn that in the U.S., where
> we drive on the right-hand side of the road, the "inside lane" would
> be the one nearest to facing traffic, IOW, the left-hand lane, and
> farthest from the shoulder or sidewalk, which abuts the right-hand
> lane (or, sometimes, the right-turn lane).

Geoff:
Don't be confused; it's Just different usage. In Europe, the inside lane is 
the one nearest to the edge of the road, because slower vehicles are 
"inside" the overtaking traffic.

Carol:
> In any case, I've always felt sure that young drivers would find it
> less confusing for the right (right-hand) side to be the right
> (correct) side and the left side to be wrong than for left to be right
> and right to be wrong. Right?

Geoff:
You need to mirror inage that for the UK . We are taught that the left 
hand side (nearer the  pavement if there is one or the hard shoulder 
on a motorway) is the one to stay in unless you are overtaking.

> Carol, noting that the western U.S., at least, doesn't have any
> "carriageways" that I know of, only "highways" (borrowed, I think from
> British English) and "freeways" (as opposed to toll roads, which are,
> I think, mostly an Eastern phenomenon)

Geoff:
We don't usually talk about highways except in the context of the 
HIghway Code or the Highways Agency (the national roads authority).

We talk about roads in general, or A-class or B-class roads or 
motorways (the equivalent of US freeways. 

Carriageway is always used in the sense of a dual carriageway - which 
I /think/ would be a divided highway in the US. For example you will 
hear us talking about a six-lane motorway which means  three lanes 
each way. Our widest are motorways such as the M25 London Orbital 
which is eight lanes over much of its length.