Traffic

In many parts of the world traffic is generally organized, flowing in lanes of travel for a particular direction, with interchanges, traffic signals, or signage at intersections to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. Traffic can be separated into vehicular, non-vehicular (bicycling), and pedestrian classes of traffic. Vehicles of the same class share their speed limits and share easement with one another. Cooperative signaling arrangements can also be made with representatives of other classes of traffic.

Lanes

When a street is wide enough to accommodate several vehicles travelling side by side, it is usual for traffic to organize itself into "lanes", that is, parallel corridors of traffic. Some roads have one lane for each direction of travel and other have multiple lanes for each direction. Some countries apply pavement markings to clearly indicate the limits of each lane and the direction of travel that it must be used for. In other countries lanes have no markings at all and drivers follow them mostly by instinct rather than visual stimulus.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On roads that have multiple lanes going in the same direction, drivers may usually shift amongst lanes as they please, but they must do so in a way that does not cause inconvenience to other drivers. Driving cultures vary greatly on the issue of "lane ownership": on some countries, drivers traveling on a lane will be very protective of their right to travel on it while on others drivers will routinely expect other drivers to shift back and forth.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~