New Road Term Coined by Country Song

[Brian556]

In the new song "Take Back Home Girl", by Chris Lane and Tori Kelly, they use the phrase: "no-lane road". Sounds like a good term to describe an unstriped road. Would y'all consider using this phrase?

[index]

I definitely wouldn't. When I see an unstriped road, I don't think of it as having no lanes (a "no-lane" road is impossible in the sense that most people will think of it), it should still be clear where you need to drive, which should be good enough for a lane on small roads like these.

[US71]

A "no-lane road" sounds more like a dead end than an un-striped roadway

[sparker]

"No Lane"?  Rhymes with "so lame"!  There's always gotta be one lane!  Artistic license gone awry! 

[adventurernumber1]

Or perhaps, a no-lane road could describe a former road that has been closed to regular vehicular traffic (such as abandoned sections of the Pennsylvania Turnpike). Nevertheless, this is a very interesting thing to ponder on.

[Hurricane Rex]

A no lane road is a road that doesn't exist, or just a good road joke.

[Scott5114]

I-366.

[kphoger]

A road without a stripe is a one-lane road.

A no-lane road would be a 4WD track, in my opinion.

[triplemultiplex]

"No lane" sounds like you gotta get out and walk.

[mrsman]

It's a little difficult to use a term like that.  On the forum, it seems that people talk about the number of lanes in both directions like discussing 2 lane roads and four lane roads.  Growing up, I was more likely to discuss the number of lanes per direction in saying something like Wilshire Blvd has 2 lanes.  In reality, it has 7 lanes, but 1 lane is for left turns, 2 lanes are for parking (driving during rush hour times), and the remaining 4 lanes (2 in each direction) are for driving.  The number of lanes in the other direction is usually not important, especially when giving directions.

A one lane road would really refer to some narrow country road that is only wide enough for one vehicle.  Hope that somebody doesn't come at you the other way.  A standard road would be a  two-lane road (or one lane per direction).

[1995hoo]

In a similar vein to what mrsman says, I would refer to a road with a single lane shared by both directions as a "single-track road" (a term used in the UK, I believe, and they usually have occasional "passing places" where you pull over and yield to someone going the other way). The reason for this usage is because I would be concerned about possible ambiguity if I referred to a "one-lane road." I know some people who confusingly refer to what most of us call "two-lane roads" (one lane in each direction, often with passing over the center line in designated zones) as "one-lane roads." The same people would refer to a road like I-81 in Virginia, which generally has two lanes in each direction, as a "two-lane" highway.

In my mind, a "one-lane road" would be a road with a single lane that allows traffic to move only in one direction. I'm having trouble thinking of an example of such a road off the top of my head (I haven't been through the Whittier Tunnel and don't know if it would qualify). I suppose the category could include one-way streets that would be wide enough for multiple lanes if they didn't have parallel parking on both sides. I don't necessarily like kphoger's definition of a road without a stripe because I can think of a lot of residential streets that have no striping whatsoever (I live on such a street) but allow traffic to move in both directions, so in my mind those roads have two lanes (and, at least in Virginia, passing on such streets is legal, though usually the only reason you'd pass would be to go around a stopped vehicle).

I cannot think of a situation in which I would refer to a "no-lane road," but I guess the example adventurernumber1 offers might work. The segment of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House comes to mind. It's definitely still a city street, but it's closed to ordinary vehicular traffic (pretty much only law enforcement and motorcades are allowed to use it), and the road was resurfaced to remove the lane markings and to give it a more decorative surface. I can't really think of any reason why I'd ever call it a "no-lane road," though.