Climbing Lane; Madiba shirt

[Barbara Need]

>CLIMBING LANE--On the way to the airport in Windhoek, I noticed a
>"CLIMBING LANE."  I was told that this is a lane for "passing."  So
>why don't they call it a "passing lane"?  The driver didn't know.
>OED?

What first comes to mind is climbing/passing lanes on highways in the
US that go over mountains. There is often an extra lane added
(usually as one heads up the mountain) so that slower traffic can
stay right and faster traffic can pass. Sometimes there is an
additional lane on particularly steep downgrades too (and a side road
at the bottom for run away trucks), so that trucks can stay as slow
as possible. I won't swear that either passing lane or climbing lane
is actually USED for these here in the State or that the situation I
described is what is found in Soth Africa.

Barbara Need
UChicago--Linguistics