In British English, refers to what highway engineers and lawyers call the footway and Americans the sidewalk, the area of a roadway set aside for pedestrians. In American English, refers to artificial outdoor ground surfaces in general and, referring to a road, the bit that motor vehicles run on. There is thus scope for amusing but potentially fatal misunderstandings ("Always stay on the pavement, children ...") between speakers of the two varieties, although this is fortunately one of the better-known transatlantic differences.