In reply to:

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You would have been less impressed around 15 years ago, before we abolished the three lane system - whereby drivers on EITHER side could use the middle lane for passing. Eeep!

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Yes, they're scary. Modern ones, that are basically crawler lanes on uphills, feel much safer.

The last real 3-lane road I used was the A6 near Garstang about 5 years ago; I was there recently and it's simply been reduced to 2 wide lanes with advisory hatching down the middle. Even though the 3-lane roads are mostly (completely?) gone, people still use wide 2-lane roads (e.g. A5 Oswestry bypass) as if they were 3 lanes, ignoring the white lines. You soon learn to keep left after the first near miss with oncoming cars straddling the line!