What is the difference between offside and nearside on a car

The nearside rear is the passenger side of the car in the back seat. For example, it may be called the nearside front light. In the UK, nearside is the passenger side which means it is the left side of the car. Whereas, the offside is the right-hand side of the car. Still looking for a good driving instructor? Check out 6 things to think about when choosing a driving instructor. For example, you may be looking for the offside rear tyre. Also, just in case you were actually looking for information on the offside, here you go.

When there are two vehicles opposite each other at a crossroads, you can choose to turn offside to offside or nearside to nearside. This is the most common way of turning at a crossroads. This kind of turning allows vehicles to check out the passing distance with the vehicle in front that is turning from the opposite direction. The potential hazard when turning nearside to nearside is that the vehicle turning can block your view of oncoming vehicles on the road ahead.

For this reason, some crossroads will mark out the road to make sure people turn offside to offside. Captain Muppet. Original Poster. Gassing Station » General Gassing. Search My Stuff What's New 3 12 24 Nearside and offside: Why? Captain Muppet Original Poster 8, posts months. Hello, We've all heard of nearside and offside of a car, and some of us even know which is which. But does anyone know why these terms got invented when we already had the universal and much more simple "left" and "right"?

I've had a quick google, but the results all seem to defining the terms using varying degrees of confusion, rather than explaining why anyone would invent such a system in the first place. And I could understand it if those same people got confused about which side the steering wheel is on in a LHD car, which they don't. It's the left side, obviously.

Now nearside is obviously the side nearest the driver kerb, but which is the nearside of a GDM but UK registered E30 M3 parked facing on-coming traffic in Paris? Whatever the answer I'm pretty sure it'll be defined in terms of left and right, so why introduce such a ridiculous pair of terms? The usage of offside and nearside should cease because it uses a reference point that is not part of the vehicle.

On most town and city roads, there are kerbs. Your email address will not be published. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. This website uses your personal data in the form of cookies to display personalised and non-personalised advertising provided by Google AdSense. If you're happy with this, please click Accept Alternatively, you can see and control what information Google uses to show you ads Read More. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.

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