American "lay-by"?

"Lay-by - Rest stop. On the side of the road you will often find a lay-by, probably just a widening of the road without any kerbing, to allow you to stop and take a break. It doesn't quite qualify as a rest area as there are generally no facilities." -- from Damian's Dominion http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/amfr4/personal/glossary2.html

That is going to depent where it is.  It is illegaly to stop on a hard shoulder for anything other than an emergency.  Lay-bys can either be stopping points as you say, or if small in ruraly areas just passing points.


Vicky

And I've been travelling to England for the past 5 years, but can't recall ever seeing anything remotely familiar to the descriptions here of a lay-by.  Are they only located in certain areas?  I've been to big cities and coutryside but don't think I've ever seen something like this.  Of course, I could have just overlooked them because they seemed so insignificant at the time.

You must have overlooked them because they're everywhere! 

Yeah, I'm fairly sure the term 'service road' is used in various locations throughout the country, but 'feeder road' seems to be solely in this area.

In Atlanta they were "access roads".  I can't remember what they were called in Iowa, or if we even had them.

Lay-bys can either be stopping points as you say, or if small in ruraly areas just passing points.

Lay-bys? Luxury! Where I live a "passing point" is a slight widening of an extremely narrow (one lane wide, but traffic allowed both directions) road so that I can pull over momentarily to allow the car coming in the opposite direction to pass by.  Better still, it's a slight dip in the hedge or stone wall that I can take note of as I drive past, so that I can reverse along the winding lane into it, when I meet an oncoming car. 

Now is when the next person is supposed to say "Passing point? Luxury!  We have to drive over the roof of an oncoming car on a footpath next to a 100 foot cliff..."

Lay-bys? Luxury! Where I live a "passing point" is a slight widening of an extremely narrow (one lane wide, but traffic allowed both directions) road so that I can pull over momentarily to allow the car coming in the opposite direction to pass by.  Better still, it's a slight dip in the hedge or stone wall that I can take note of as I drive past, so that I can reverse along the winding lane into it, when I meet an oncoming car. 

We have passing places, too. But, to me, they're sort of spots that have been created by cars pulling into the hedge over the years until a little widening has occurred. With these narrow lanes, they've saved me a million times over! 

they're sort of spots that have been created by cars pulling into the hedge over the years until a little widening has occurred.

Yes.

Where I live a "passing point" is a slight widening of an extremely narrow (one lane wide, but traffic allowed both directions) road so that I can pull over momentarily to allow the car coming in the opposite direction to pass by.  Better still, it's a slight dip in the hedge or stone wall that I can take note of as I drive past, so that I can reverse along the winding lane into it, when I meet an oncoming car. 

That's the norm for many of the little country lanes around here.