The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 5 letter word PARKING METER
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
P
A
R
K
I
N
G
M
E
T
E
R
More clues leading to the result PARKING METER
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "One may get fed by the side of the road" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case one may get fed by the side of the road = parking meter.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.