how wide would 1 lane be in n-scale with a parking lane
thanks
If memory serves me, I believe a standard highway is 22 ft wide, (1 5/8" in N scale), A single lane would of course be half that. Parking lanes are usually 7 or 8 ft wide, (1/2" to 17/32"). You need to get a scale ruler if you don’t have one already.[:)]
I think the width of a road (road allowance) is 66 feet, the pavement ,as mentioned ,
above, at 22 feet would give you 11 feet each side of centre, thats only 5.5 feet for parking and driving, say take a tape measure and go out and measure your street.
I use a little selective compression on my roads. I make them 25-30 feet wide and they look okay with the vehicles on them. That’s just the pavement, not including shoulders or ditches. They’re more towards 25’ out in the country and 30’ or so in town to allow for parking. If you want diagonal parking as many small towns have, then the roads would have to be much wider.
The common modern standard is 12’ wide travel lane, 8’ wide shoulder (parking lane). A two lane road would be 40 feet wide (3 inches on an N scale layout) However, making roads a little narrower will keep them from overwwlming the other scenery and the trains
On the other hand, making them 3 inches wide will allow you to have vehicles in the parking and traffic lanes without it looking like there is going to be an imminent collision.
Don’t forget a modern truck body or trailer is 102 inches (8.5 feet) wide and even the older trucks were 8 feet wide. American cars are a bit less than 7 feet wide. So if you place them side-by-side, they will occupy about 2 3/8 inches. So it’s probably worth the extra 5/8 inch to make your streets look right.
BTW: Old 2-lane country roads can be as little as 1.5 inches wide with a bit of ballast along the edges to suggest a shoulder.