Uh, no. It happens all the time in Scotland, particularly the highlands. I ran into it in Iceland as well.

Generally, the car closest to the nearest spot suitable for passing just reverses to that spot. The other car passes, and they both go on their merry way. Very little in the way of communication required.

The person who didn't reverse is supposed to wave politely to the person who did reverse - that's the usual behaviour in Scotland.

Also its sometimes not just who is nearest who reverses back - sometimes things like corners, size of vehicle, if anyone has a trailer come into the decision making.

I assumed "don't be a jerk, wave to the other guy" and "don't make the lorry back up hill and around a curve" were given. :)

Of all the places I've driven, I've found Scotland (Perthshire and into the Highlands in particular) to be the most sane. Polite, little drama, and most follow the rules to a T.

I found it amazing how common this was in India (Kolkata) - and not only were they long roads, with cars parked on both sides of the road, their were some stretches that barely had enough room for one care to get through - as in, I couldn't open the door if the car stopped.

I have no idea how a Automated Vehicle would handle this - the humans had to engage in a lot of negotiations if they came into situations in which both cars were approaching each other - particularly if they had cars behind them.

There's some single-lane Swiss mountain roads, with occasional passing spots. There's a specific rule in the Swiss driving code that the car going up has priority, so the car driving down gets to reverse to the closest passing spot - presumably reversing upwards is less scary, as guardrails may or may not be present...

But then there's the extra rule that on some roads if you meet a "car postal" (bus service run by the Post Office) it gets to decide what you do :)

Same uphill/downhill rule here in California. Besides being less scary to go uphill in reverse, you're a lot less likely to get stuck.

Interesting. I think that's the same rule in hiking as well.

Have you ever driven in the real world? Those roads are very common in many areas. Try driving in Malta sometime.

Yes. I just don't drive in areas like the one described.

I've never driven in Malta, but if I'm ever there, I'll be sure to try driving.

There are a fair number of roads like this in residential massachusetts (Medford and parts of Somerville anyway). Basically one car pulls over in front of a curb cut or where no cars are parked and lets the other car go by.