Climbing Lane; Madiba shirt

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:14 PM -0500 4/28/04, Barbara Need wrote:
>>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.

Or just hills.  (There are no mountains on I-95 in Connecticut, but
there are climbing lanes added in just these circumstances for the
rollling hills in the eastern part of the state.)

>  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

It is, at least in parts of the Northeast; cf. "Climbing Lane Ends" signs

As for the bizarre "Bobst Boy" article in the South African STAR
Barry mentions, it's a first page story in today's NYT.

Larry