UK road width

[390001]

Hi all been having a look on google and had a search on here couldnt really find an answer.

How wide is a uk road generally in N gauge per lane and the pavement.  Coming to the part soon where i will be marking this all out and want it to look realistic enough.

Sorry if this is a question that gets asked all the time i did try searching but unless i missed it i couldnt find an answer fully.

kindest regards and thank you in advance.

[Sharkey51]

There's some info at https://mocktheorytest.com/resources/how-wide-are-roads/#:~:text=Standard%20residential%20streets%20can%20be,lane%20will%20be%203.65m that might give you a starting point when it comes to deciding on road widths.

[PLD]

Exactly Two-and-a-half pieces of string!!!

The realy isnt one standard answer to that unfortunately... It depends whether is a newly built road or dates from the 1920s, is it a suburban dual-carriageway or a country lane or a motorway??

About the only road type for which there are set standards are Motoways and other trunk roads:
A motorway lane has a RECOMENDED width of 3.6m per lane with at least one lane of 3.2m or wider and a minimum of 2.2m for other lanes (often lane 3 is narrower than L1 & L2)
A NEW BUILD Trunk road has a RECOMENDED 3.2m per lane for Dual-Carriageway with a central division, 3.7m for each direction of a single carriageway.

As ever observation is the key - look at a real example of the type of road you want and measure/estimate from that.

[Bealman]

Yes, when I saw the original question, I thought that there's no standard.... just make it so it looks right!

I recall driving through country lanes to Beer that were one vehicle wide with huge hedgerows!

[Steven B]

Whilst there are standards for new build roads, anything older (i.e. most of them!) will be to whatever worked at the time they were built.

I'd suggest using Google Earth. Find a section of road similar to the one you want to model. The measuring tool will give you a reasonably accurate distance (certainly so when scaled down by 1:148.

The other option is to view the street in Google Street View and estimate based on the width of any cars you can identify.

Knowing the scale width is only half the problem. It's quite surprising how wide a road and two pavements can be - you might find they're over dominant when done to scale and some selective compression may be needed. If in doubt, lay some cars out on a section of the layout and see what looks right!

Steven B.

[GScaleBruce]

The full standards are set out in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, or DMRB. Standard CD 127 will give you much of the detail, but the "basic" lane width is 3.65m. This hasn't changed for many years and applies to single and dual carriageway roads (and, with some minor variations, motorways). Although older roads will have been built to different standards, it's a sensible starting point.

[The Q]

The 2 1/2 mile long road outside my house, between two villages, varies from 6ft to 8ft wide, when a tractor runs along it the tyres are on the grass verges both sides. But that's what you get with a road that's over 1000 years old.

I've noticed on new housing estates roads are narrower than in the past. Although 2way it's a slow to a crawl to get past another car.

Mind you , I was on a nearby main road yesterday. Which is wide enough to have a zigzag white marked area down the middle. Which still wasn't wide enough for the mobile home being transported as that was overhanging the lorry on both sides by 3ft..

[Bealman]

Yeah, roads on new housing estates here in Oz are ridiculously narrow.

I bet the OP is sorry for asking! 

[Newportnobby]

I find a twin carriageway road to be about 40mm, and that's what Gaugesmaster use as well. See........

https://www.jacksonsmodels.co.uk/gaugemaster-gm390-asphalt-road-1m-long-40mm-wide-n-gauge.ir?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq-Pd4Pba-wIVjrrtCh3HxgZGEAQYAyABEgJ7d_D_BwE

[Papyrus]

Whilst there are standards for new build roads, anything older (i.e. most of them!) will be to whatever worked at the time they were built.

Knowing the scale width is only half the problem. It's quite surprising how wide a road and two pavements can be - you might find they're over dominant when done to scale and some selective compression may be needed. If in doubt, lay some cars out on a section of the layout and see what looks right!

Steven B.

Agree with all of this. From my experience as a surveyor, pavements seem to be a more consistent width than roads - 6 feet for older pavements, 2 metres these days. As far as the road is concerned, measure the width of your widest vehicle, double it and add a few mm. Simples...

Cheers,

Chris

[Nbodger]

As @GScaleBruce states the DMRB states a carriageway width of 3.65m per road lane, therefore a two lane road would be 7.30m (50mm) between kerbs, however some times additional hard strips are added to the width, plus similar variations for free edge construction (no kerbs). This width is applied to all distributor and A class roads and is a minimum width, anything less, then a departure to standard has to be applied for. Similarly a three lane motorway plus hard shoulder would be 3.65m x 4 lanes, narrower lanes would also be a departure.

Many local authorities have their own design details for developers with gives the width of distributor roads (7.3m) and housing estate and industrial estate minimum requirements, PDF copies of these can frequently be found in the public domain on line.

Mike H

[Greygreaser]

These dimensions are fine but in the prototype I'm modelling the supposed 2 lane roads loose the central white line markings as the width narrows along a couple of stretches? So is there a minimum road width for 2 lanes? My observations are that Single lane/rural roads have no central markings except at junctions or where they widen out approaching "hazards"!

Traffic signs manual Chapter 5 - Road markings 2018 would seem to have the answer:-

" 2.2.6. On rural roads below 5.5 m in width, over‐running of the carriageway edge can occur if centre line markings are provided, causing maintenance problems. Drivers might also expect a road marked with a centre line to be wide enough for opposing lanes of traffic to pass. In these circumstances the centre line should be omitted, but it is recommended that edge of carriageway markings would be helpful."