Although it is often termed as off roading Green Laning is actually driving on public roads. These roads are mainly Byways open to all traffic (BOATS)and Unclassified roads (UCR's) and are scattered all over the country. These are public roads which require you to have all the usual legal requirements that you would have for driving on "normal" roads such as driving licence, insurance, road tax and mot. Green lanes would originally have been used to link farms and villages. They range from simple to drive tracks to more technical routes with fords and/or rocky sections and often heavily over grown shrubs and bushes etc. Although some lanes do contain technical sections it is generally a nice relaxing day out and an opportunity to enjoy countryside in your vehicle that you would normally have to walk to. I often refer to green laning as lazy rambling. Here in the northeast of England, we are fortunate to have some stunning routes right on our doorstep. If you're a novice and want to give it a go make sure you take the time to check out the rules and etiquette on this site and elsewhere. GLASS website is a great place to start. Don't venture out alone, try to get someone experienced to go with. There are many members on our forum who would love any excuse for a day on the lanes. Most of all, enjoy this great hobby and take care of our lanes.... Oh and prepare to be hooked.. This is a very addictive pastime.

Planning a days laning is not as hard as you might think. It's pretty much common sense but there are a few things you need to be aware of. Once you have decided where you want to go you then need to find lanes in that area that are legal to drive. LANESMART will help you with this. These are primarily BOATS (byways open to all traffic) and will usually be marked on your OS map (check the legend on the map as different maps can have different symbols).

Next you need to "CONFIRM" the status of the lane(s) you plan to drive. Even a brand new map can be out of date so you need to check that the route you have chosen is still legal. You can look on the Trailwise site and on the local council site. Most councils have a "definitive" map on their website with information that will help you. You need to check that there are no TRO's (Traffic Regulation Order) which prevent you from legally using the lane(s). You can also find contact information for the councils rights of way officer (or similar title) who can advise you on the current legal status of the lane(s) you plan to drive. Links to the relevant councils and associations can be found on our links page. We would also appreciate if you would check the TRO/VRO section on the forum. This section contains information on lanes that should not be driven. Although some may not have any legal restrictions on them they may have a VRO (voluntary restriction order) which we have agreed on and ask our members not to drive them. Next thing you should do is use the forum/website to get more information about your route. There are many people on our forum with varying levels of experience. It's quite likely that some of them will have driven your chosen lane(s) quite recently. They can advise you of any tricky bits and offer advice about all sorts of things. The best direction to drive the lane, things to be careful of, that big rock hidden within the ford crossing or maybe even in some cases they will be one step ahead of the council and advise you not to drive a lane if they feel it needs resting. Whatever the advice they give, it's always worth taking on board. And you might even find that one or two of them ask to tag along.