Does anyone know the average width of a dual-carriageway in the UK? I would like to know the width of a lane of the the local A14 road.

Random Question, i know, but Google can't help.

Google can't help but Google Earth CAN!

The nearest dual carriageway to me is 7.5 metres wide according to Google earth.

(Thats just a measurement of the width of One side of the road (2 lanes))

The width of a lane on the A14 is roughly 3.5m give or take, overall the width of the whole carriageway (including central reservation) is 19.3m or so.

The lane is roughly 3.5 m wide?

I measured outside my house (B-Road) and it's 3.93 m per lane...

*pictures Jak walking outside ,squinting his eyes from the harsh sunlight, and rolling out a piece of cord over the road while mumbling to himself*

I guess your neighbours dont need any more assertion that they have a geekish, kinda funny guy living in their neighbourhood? :leb:

(all in good fun..dont take me too serious)

The joys of Geography coursework - last time i did some i ended up taking pictures outside a local primary school, inadvertantly getting a few pics of little kids on the way to School - all the parents thought i was some sort of 16 year old peadophile!

Accidently on purpose fall off your scooterped on the A14 (slow motion and stuff so you don't damage it) then quickly measure the width of that lane.



OK, that's not the brightest option but, it could work.

You could always stop off at a layby on the A14 and get the tape measure out when there's a gap in the traffic

Quote from Jakg :

The joys of Geography coursework - last time i did some i ended up taking pictures outside a local primary school, inadvertantly getting a few pics of little kids on the way to School - all the parents thought i was some sort of 16 year old peadophile!

I actually LOL'ed at that. Jakg you are one weird kid
~Bryan~

Quote from dropin_biking :

I actually LOL'ed at that. Jakg you are one weird kid
~Bryan~

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=39343

@ Jakg: I think a dual carriageway is about 25m wide. It's probably 4 meters wide per lane. Four lanes and some room on both sides for emergency vehicles and room between both directions would make about 25m in total.

LMAO @ Erik

Quote from The General Lee :

LMAO @ Erik

I had to

I never said I wasn't weird

A little more on topic, how much change would there be in size between North American highways, European highways, Japanese highways, etc? I remember reading something a while back on the forums about parking spaces being different sizes, I wonder if highways and roads vary in size as well. I would imagine so, but how much?
~Bryan~

Jak - I bet that 3.5m wide lane does not account for the paved shoulder at the either sides of the highway - The 'B-Road' outside your house also has this extra space added to account for safety and parked cars. Additionally, on a divided highway you are always passing cars travelling in the same direction as you (unless you're doing something wrong ) but on a B-road, most cars you pass are travelling in the opposite direction, requiring some extra room as a safety net of sorts.

There's one section of the Garden State Parkway (GSP) here in New Jersey that has ridiculously narrow lanes. Actually the whole damn thing has narrow lanes but on the Driscoll Bridge they're particularly narrow. In fact they're only slightly wider than a bus at about 3 meters (10 feet). This particular bridge has 6 lanes in each direction. The posted speed limit is 45 mph but it's rare to see traffic on the bridge drop below 60, and most do about 70. Jersey drivers are nuts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driscoll_Bridge

Quote from Forbin :

There's one section of the Garden State Parkway (GSP) here in New Jersey that has ridiculously narrow lanes. Actually the whole damn thing has narrow lanes but on the Driscoll Bridge they're particularly narrow. In fact they're only slightly wider than a bus at about 3 meters (10 feet). This particular bridge has 6 lanes in each direction. The posted speed limit is 45 mph but it's rare to see traffic on the bridge drop below 60, and most do about 70. Jersey drivers are nuts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driscoll_Bridge

I suppose in the US you NEED lanes wide enough to fit two Hummers side by side

The nearest Motorway to me is only about 50cm wider, and the speed limit is 70mph. Lots of people however do about 80 - 100 with some nutters doing around 120

But I suppose its ok here since not everybody has a Lincoln Navigator/Hummer/Massive American car

Quote from MAGGOT :

Jak - I bet that 3.5m wide lane does not account for the paved shoulder at the either sides of the highway

Correct, I measured (using google earth) from the White line of the hard shoulder, to the edge of Lane 1/2, considering the Hard shoulder isn't Classed as a lane.

JO53PHS: Actually that's the same width as the lanes on this bridge (10ft = 3.049m).

The minimum lane width for an interstate highway in the US is 12 ft (3.62 m). This particular road gets around that law by not being an interstate highway.

I'm not sure what the New Jersey state regulations are regarding lane width.

Oh, and the Hummer H1 (the widest of all 3) is "only" 2.2m wide. The Unimog U5000 is 30cm wider.