Part Three…Road Descriptions and Markings Terminology. - Nearside… Side of car or edge of road on the Left. Literally “ near-est to the Kerb”
- Offside… Opposite to the Nearside…in other words on the Right. These two terms can refer to Lanes… Mirrors and Drivers side or Passenger side of the car.
- Apex… the halfway point of the Reverse around the corner manoeuvre. Literally in the middle of the corner you are reversing around.
- Hard Shoulder…The broken yellow line that delineates the emergency space on the left hand side of the nearside lane on a Carriageway or Motorway. This line is also used on lesser roads to mark where the road ends and the verge begins! The hard shoulder is for emergency use only not for taking phone calls or having a pic-nic!
- Exit…the term used to describe the roads leading off a roundabout. In busy locations there could be as many as five or six exits. Usually on a standard configuration Roundabout there are four exits ; sometimes three, particularly on Mini-Roundabouts.
- Mini-Roundabout… the fact that a roundabout is described as a mini roundabout does not mean that it has a low level of Traffic. The term describes the physical size of the roundabout which may be very small but may carry a large amount of often fast moving traffic. These roundabouts are commonplace today and can be more difficult and dangerous than their larger cousins!
- Median Strips…Those white stripes enclosed within a solid line which mean they are a forbidden territory. You find them on approach to busy junctions and roundabouts and mean “keep away”. They are designed to make drivers adopt the correct positioning when approaching the particular junction. They are not put there for show or to use up the Departmental White Paint budget.
- Bus Lane… More and more frequently now in busy Urban areas you will find Bus Lanes which as you might have guessed, are for Buses during the hours of 7.00am to 7.00pm usually. Where these are newly introduced a driver needs to be very vigilant with the nearside mirror to spot Drivers using the Bus Lane who are oblivious to their purpose. Also “Smart Alec “drivers like to use the Bus Lane when trying to get a jump on other traffic.
- Blind Spot… The typical Blind spot for a driver is behind the right shoulder when driving on the nearside (the left).If you are parked on the right hand side of the road and pulling back into the left hand lane (nearside lane) then your Blind spot will be over your left shoulder. Truck Drivers have quite a sizable blind spot so be very careful when overtaking a truck to get out of the Blind spot quickly in case the Driver is thinking of changing lanes or overtaking a slower vehicle ahead of him.
This Concludes our three part Tutorial on Driving Language and Terminolgy that is in common usage by Driving Schools and Driving Examiners |
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