Inside, Outside, Near Lane, Far Lane, whatever...

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
> Ok, admittedly this is an extremely minor point, but I find
> the whole discussion of 'inside lane' and 'outside lane' very
> confusing. So confusing that after reading the posts, I still
> don't know whether the UK and the US are the same or different.
> 
> Relative to 'inside lane', it doesn't matter whether you drive
> on the left or the right, the Inside lane is at the center of
> the roadway (roadway meaning combined lanes in both directions
> whether divided or not), and conversely the 'outside lane' is 
> at the outer edge of the roadway. 

Geoff:
<takes deep breath>

Right.

In the UK, we drive on the left and the inside lane is the lane 
on the /left/ - in other words, nearest the pavement or the 
hedge or the hard shoulder or the garden wall or whatever 
borders the road. This is also sometimes referred to as the 
slow lane in conversation.

If the road is a dual carriageway and has a minimum of two 
lanes each side divided by a central reservation, then the right 
hand lane //in the UK// is the outside lane. If there are three 
lanes each way, the middle lane on each carriageway is the 
centre lane or middle lane. These lanes are sometimes familiarly 
called the fast lanes.

Slower drivers are exhorted to use the inside lanes leaving the 
middle and outside lane(s) for faster overtaking traffic.