Often they are a short paved lane meant for slow vehicles to pull off onto to allow slower traffic to pass, but often on mountain roads, it's a gravel off-road area that serves the same purpose. But pulling into one can be a bumpy ride, and the gravel service means it's hard to accelerate quickly until you get fully back on the road so you need to be sure you have a lot of clear space behind you (which can be hard to ensure on twisty mountain roads).
My understanding is that these aren't like the overtaking lanes we have in Australia (where what was a 2 lane road becomes 3 lane with one additional lane for a period of time).
I think they are more like what we'd refer to as truck stops - an area off the road where you can pull over to stop.
I'd note this quote:
> Second, often times (in the USA at least), these pull-outs have rough terrain going in an and out of them. There will be a little bump or uneven ground that most vehicles wouldn't mind hitting every now and then, but in my rig, that causes the whole thing to sway back and forth ...
> Pulling into the pull-out, coming to a complete stop, waiting for everyone to pass..
No, it's neither of those things IMO. (I've driven a lot in Australia and in the US.) The latter you mentioned sounds like a truck-specific rest-stop - there are loads of those on the Stuart Highway, or heading over to Eyre Peninsula.
What they're talking about are turnout lanes which are a lane beside the road with no median/barrier and you're expected to slow down or maybe stop very briefly, purely to let faster traffic through. There are some up on the road past Pichi Richi Park to Quorn if you ever drive through the Southern Flinders, but they're not overly common in SA.
I've seen them formally in northern USA (Idaho going into Washington state, maybe) where they are risky and unclear, and I've seen informal ones on roads east of the Sierra Nevada which are like your quote - rough, unpredictable poorly laid asphalt or gravel.
Is there a distinction between turnout and pullout?
An RV is 20-30+ feet long. Thirty feet isn't enough time to slow and stop at speed. Let alone build up speed and reenter the main route. Even the one in your picture (much longer than 30') is an example of one that is risky for an RVer to use. People would use that to stop and take a photo or take their kid to the toilet, but proper ones are closer to an actual lane as in, same surface as the road, and longer. And no one would stop on them other than for 10 seconds to let traffic pass. Here's one on the southern side of Flinders Ranges Way here in South Australia (where I assume @NL still lives):
No, its literally a 100 feet or something, maybe 3 or 4 rv length, or 10 car length strip, in California its asphalted. You get off the road lane, you have to stop in it. Others pass you. Now you come back to road.
Same, never heard the term. Nor have I seen the lanes (I'm east coast).
Scotland has tons of these in rural areas, where the roads are literal single-track (only one lane wide). Used for on-coming traffic instead passing. It works fine, because the speeds are low and people are used it.
