A driving question - roundabouts

[thebeatofthedrum]

If someone said to you, "use the outside lane" at a roundabout would you think they were talking about the left hand lane or the right hand lane?

Its probably just a good idea to avoid using outside/inside and instead use left/right

Left.

My immediate response would be left, if someone said it. I can see the rationale behind right, but when I think of the outside of a roundabout it's always the left lane!

It would probably depend on the time of day, phase of the moon, and how many cups of tea I've had so far.

On dual carriageways/motorways the "outside lane" being the one next to the central reservation and the "inside lane" being the one next to the kerb is really fucking confusing and I'd like to slap whichever idiot came up with that.

It's the left hand lane

This had blown my mind!!! Outside Lane is for overtaking therefore RHS on a roundabout.

Left

Left hand lane as it's on outside of roundabout, inside lane is closest to the inside of the roundabout (middle part)

Surely it’s neither? I’ve only known roundabout lanes to be referred to as left or right if there’s only two lanes.

Left lane is the 'outside' of a loop shape, as with the outside lane of an athletics track.

Ooh, dare I say, I think it depends how big the roundabout is.

100% the outside lane is the rhs. Inside lane is the lhs (here in UK).

Its nothing to do with being the inside of the circle. On a dual carriageway or motorway, the inside lane is on the lhs. Which if you think about it is actually the 'outside' of the piece of tarmac. And the outside lane is on the rhs, so effectively in the middle of the tarmac when considering both directions of the road.

You can't swap terminology when you get to a roundabout. Imagine driving along a dual carriageway which comes to a roundabout. You cant say one minute that the outside lane is the rhs, and then 2 metres later when you get to the roundabout suddenly swap your meaning to say you're now suddenly on the inside lane!

Surely outside lane is left lane as it’s on the outside of the roundabout, whereas Right hand side is inside lane as you’re inside the other cars and roundabout?

Left. It's the furthest away from the roundabout

This is doing my head in a little bit 🤣

Outside lane, people! Not outside of the shape of the bit of road you're driving on 🤦‍♀️

It's the right hand lane.

Those of you who think it's the left, you're wrong.

Think about it logically...when you're driving along the road, the nearside lane is the left. The nearside of your car is the one closest to the kerb. The offside lane is the right hand lane.

It would make no sense whatsoever for the offside lane (on the approach to a roundabout) to become the inside lane once you were on the roundabout!

Tbh when you're learning to drive, instructors and examiners refer to left and right hand rather than near and offside, mainly because half the population don't know which is which ( as demonstrated by this thread!)

Offside = outside.

Left.

Well on a dial carriage way the right hand lane is the outside lane, (which has always confused me, it just seems more logical for that to be the inside lane), so the outside lane?

Dual carriageway 🙄

Right.

If the argued logic was its left because its the outside of the circle then why on a multi lane road is it the inside lane on the left and on the outside of the straight?

Right hand.
On a motorway or dual carriageway where there is more than one lane, the left hand lane is the inside and the right hand lane is the outside lane. Same applies here. You could say stay on the inside of the roundabout to mean the lane hugging the roundabout though.

As my driving instructor drummed into me “we drive on the left in the UK” so you should always be in the leftmost lane unless making a manoeuvre. When finished you return to the left again (or should). Hence the right hand lane is “outside” of the lane you should be in most of the time.

Right hand lane. Inside means nearest to the kerb.