Things you see out and about and wonder why? Just why?

People who adjust their heating room thermostat when the weather gets cold. What job do you think your thermostat is meant to do?

Thermostats can’t tell how cold the walls are, which significantly effects the comfort of the room. I can knock the thermostat back by at least 2 degrees in the spring without complaints.

Then don’t even start the moving off procedure until the car in front has pulled away.

That’s because they’ve pulled up too close to the car in front so need to wait for it to move off completely in order to create a suitable gap.

I never understood why people say ‘nearside’ and ‘offside’ or use the terms ‘inside and outside lanes’ when it’s not actually the inside of the corner. The inside lane on a corner is the one closest to the inside of the curve, otherwise its not an ‘inside lane’. I was never taught nearside or offside. It was just left or right.

Someone tried explaining it to me by referring to the nearest kerb to the car and it made no sense. Surely the nearest kerb depends on the lane you’re in. In the right hand lane of a dual carriageway, the nearest kerb is on the right, not left.

Why do retirees insist on doing things at weekends and keeping roughly the same schedule as the working population who, given the option would happily ditch the Monday – Friday /Saturday & Sunday framework?

It leaves us with the weekdays free to go out and about in the countryside while you lot are at work.

It leaves us with the weekdays free to go out and about in the countryside while you lot are at work.

But that’s sort of my point, it seems that the approach is very often the exact opposite of that

use the terms ‘inside and outside lanes’

I get near side and offside, but referring to lane three as the outside just makes no sense, it’s the lane nearest to the middle of the motorway how is it outside?

But that’s sort of my point, it seems that the approach is very often the exact opposite of that

Ah I thought you meant doing chores at the weekend.

Oh no, that I completely get, if only because deep down inside I’m also bloody minded enough to know that in my dotage* I’ll take a sort of dirty pleasure in blocking the supermarket isles then insisting on paying in change on a Saturday afternoon.

*I think I’ll just have to make do with being old as I’m guessing actual retirement will begin about the same time my brain function ceases

I was never taught nearside or offside. It was just left or right.

Left or right of the car is different if you’re the driver sitting in the seat or if you’re a mechanic looking in the bonnet. When reading instructions for fixing cars I hate it when they say left or right.

Nearside is nearest the curb or verge on the driver’s left, because there isn’t usually one on the driver’s right.

Nearside is nearest the curb or verge on the driver’s left, because there isn’t usually one on the driver’s right.

Except in most of the world, surely?

That’s because they’ve pulled up too close to the car in front so need to wait for it to move off completely in order to create a suitable gap.

tyres and tarmac

You been to Germany in the spring?

Yes we stayed there from winter to summer. Absolutely no kids outside in winter, no-one playing in the snow, nothing. Then come about Easter they were all allowed out and forced to wear massive winter coats in the warm spring sunshine, despite being visibly red faced and overheating hugely. Whilst watching our daughter in the playgrounds we met one other foreigner with her kid in a t-shirt who was just as incredulous.

Except in most of the world, surely?

Smart arse. Near/off side are the other way round when you drive on the other side of the road.

Fat bike at an XC race

fat bikes anywhere tbh.

Smart arse

Yes, though not quite as much as it may have sounded.

Near/off side are the other way round when you drive on the other side of the road.

Ah, now that maybe makes more sense. I also never quite understood the near/off thing. I got the point, eg front rear facing left or right changes, but never how it helped as such and why its not just “driver’s side, passenger side”

So if you’re driving a left hand drive car in the UK is the Nearside the same as in a rh drive car?

I hate nearside and offside too.
Especially as the side that is near to me as the driver is not the near side.
And it switches depending on country.

If I needed to order the left wing mirror for my German car, what do I ask EuroCarParts for?

Links 😉

And it switches depending on country

But that does make some sense, the road side you drive on being the same regardless of what handedness of car you drive.
Otoh if it changes with the handedness of the car, why bother?

(though to molgrips’ point about manuals I’d guess there are a lot more things which remain on the “left” regardless of which hand the car is than there are things which change, and absolutely driving between here and France wouldn’t change which side of my car the steering wheel [or anything else] is on but ?would? suddenly change whether that’s the near or offside)

…. I too am somewhat puzzled by the offside law

molgrips

I was never taught nearside or offside. It was just left or right.

Left or right of the car is different if you’re the driver sitting in the seat or if you’re a mechanic looking in the bonnet.

Left or right when referring to the side of a car, would surely be from a driver’s perspective to virtually everyone who was trying to describe something? I get that there is a small chance for an error, but given that many people don’t frequently use or understand nearside/offside there’s probably more room for error with that terminology.
Nearside requires you to know what it is supposed to be near. It only makes sense when you know that it means near the curb/verge/pavement. To someone who doesn’t know this, ‘near’ could logically refer to near the driver.

Your car doesn’t suddenly become left hand drive when looking at it from the bonnet end, does it? It’s still a right hand drive car as the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car, even though you are looking at it from a different viewpoint.

Left or right is just easier. Every car’s left is the left, and every car’s right is the right. Doesn’t matter if you’re in front or behind. The car’s left is always it’s left. My left hand doesn’t change when I travel abroad or turn around.

Its the outside lane as the default lane is the 1st lane you join on the motorway, you then move to one of the ‘Outside’ lanes to overtake.

Its the outside lane as the default lane is the 1st lane you join on the motorway, you then move to one of the ‘Outside’ lanes to overtake.

2 issues with that.

1. If the road bends round to the right, the outside of the curve is on the left. So the far left lane is on the outside.

2. If I’m doing 70mph in the left lane, then cars in the middle and right lanes slow down to less than 70mph, does the left lane then become the outside lane since I’m passing the other cars? It happens a lot. I know you should overtake on the right but this does happen a lot.

I then realised that when your car is using auto hold the brake lights are on even if your foot is not on the brake pedal. It annoys me no end because now I’m one of those people.

i did not know this, i’ll try not to use it so much now. thanks.

Its the outside lane as the default lane is the 1st lane you join on the motorway, you then move to one of the ‘Outside’ lanes to overtake.

yet annoyingly my wife calls the outside lanes the ‘inside’ lanes, as shes ‘moving inwards towards the middle of the road’.
she also does that annoying climate control thing ^^^, jacking the dial up to max as soon as we get in on a cold day. ive given up trying to explain…..

yet annoyingly my wife calls the outside lanes the ‘inside’ lanes, as shes ‘moving inwards towards the middle of the road’.

Makes perfect sense to me. Put it this way, if a roundabout has 2 lanes, which one is the inside lane? The one nearest the middle is the logical answer.

So what about the M25 or any other orbital motorway/multilane ring road?

Also what am I supposed to be doing with my cars internal heating and AC controls?

I generally wait 5 mins for the car to warm up and then set it to what I want, as the initial blast is usually a pathetic blow of tepid air, regardless of the setting.

Put it this way, if a roundabout has 2 lanes, which one is the inside lane? The one nearest the middle is the logical answer.

Trick question isn’t it, as any fule kno round abouts only have a single lane, it just gets straighter as the road gets wider.

So what about the M25 or any other orbital motorway/multilane ring road?

Exactly. The inside would keep changing depending the the roads bend. Much easier to say left, middle, right lane since that stays constant.

Trick question isn’t it, as any fule kno round abouts only have a single lane, it just gets straighter as the road gets wider.

Not a trick question. Many roundabouts have more than one lane. Some have more than 2 lanes.

We all know that the name of the lane has nothing to do with logic, its just what you learn off your parents and it sticks.

If you consider the nearside to be inside and offside to be outside then it makes more sense.

So if you overtake a car you move to the out side of your lane and then move back in. If you try to exit the lane in the other direction you would probably end up leaving the road so that’s definitely not the out side.

you would probably end up leaving the road so that’s definitely not the out side.

If I leave my house I end up outside.
And in your example I’d be off-side o’ road

Just saying like. 😉

Trick question isn’t it, as any fule kno round abouts only have a single lane, it just gets straighter as the road gets wider.

Tru dat 😉

Tru dat 😉

I wouldn’t mind, I was joking but it appears* that all the traffic joining the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock minis there is in the wrong lane (2nd from outside** of the one major, which should be joining the next but one mini, not the next) having only used the straightest line to get there.

The lane for traffic turning right*** off the centre looks in both cases to be empty.

*I’m unfamiliar with that particularly awful bit of road layout beyond its infamy so may be wrong.

**outside being furthest from the middle in this case.

***going anti clockwise round a roundabout in the UK hurts my head.

(the biggest problem there is the changing number of lanes on the inner major though. Three between 12&2oclock exits and the 7&5 ones, then four lanes between the other junctions)

you then move to one of the ‘Outside’ lanes to overtake.

By very much moving to the middle or the inside of the road. It’s just a UK road “idiom” we understand  because that’s”just how it is”, but to foreigners (my wife, for example who’s Canadian) it makes zero sense.

See also; some road signs.

You have to be taught to know what it means, you can’t intuit it’s meaning otherwise. For people (tourists for example) who don’t know, it’s meaningless. We have a pretty sophisticated road language in this country, but you have to be immersed in it to understand all the nuance that we take for granted.

For people (tourists for example) who don’t know, it’s meaningless. We have a pretty sophisticated road language in this country, but you have to be immersed in it to understand all the nuance that we take for granted.

Even our nearest neighbour France can be intimidating. Even though, in reality, its pretty much the same end result, just with different paint and pictures.
I’m glad I only have to deal with the motorways and southern rural areas, I’d hate to have to go into a city.

We ‘pull out’ to overtake, even on motorways, therefore the overtaking lanes are ‘outside’ the driving lane. The ‘outside’ often refers to the side away from something, for example on a Rugby pitch if your scrum half passes to you away from the scrum and then you pass the same direction you could be considered passing ‘outside or you could make an ‘inside’ pass the other way.

For people (tourists for example) who don’t know, it’s meaningless.

That’s why there’s a key to road signs for all the countries in a European road atlas. Remember them?

I have the same reaction to the dog poo and litter as above…

On a bike based topic, I wonder why there are so many (mainly) blokes riding road bikes around hilly places with gears that are not low enough to cycle up the hills comfortably and with high rations they will never spin and handlebars so low they can’t enjoy the view without getting a crick in their neck…

Stuff I used to come across on Cannock Chase. Not so much why, but how? 😂

@nickc
Were you not listening to the Green Cross Code?

5. Look and listen again
When it is safe and there is no traffic, walk straight across the road.
Keep looking and listening while you cross the road. Watch out for cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders.
Always walk straight across the road, DO NOT walk diagonally.
NEVER run across the road because you might fall over and you might not get up in time

Diagonal takes longer, increasing risk and people, especially kids, get hit by cars

Luckily we’ve moved on a bit from the 70s and there is more onus on drivers not to hit people now.