Apparently it's real - the reasoning being that heavy vehicles going uphill can navigate the bends on the outside, making it a little easier. Same system is used in and around the Himalayas (apparently).
With a strictly enforced speed limit (which is pretty much self governing) it makes perfect sense obviously designed to prevent long distance heavy artic drivers from getting wedged and causing jams .
I'm willing to bet there has never been an accident on that road since the system was introduced tends to make everyone slow down and pay attention
There is some sense in the nonsense, not only do the larger radius curves make it easier for HGVs to navigate, but the climbing gradients on the outside curves are probably 1/3 of those on the inside.
I remember as a young teenager cyclist, climbing the 1:4 up to the castle at Harlech (Wales), where the only way to do it was by riding on the outside of each curve, meaning periodically switching to the right hand side of the road.
The extreme inside of the curves was close to vertical on that cenreline extreme gradient of 1:4.
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