I am creating a downtown scene on my layout and want to know how wide I should make my streets. I am using HO scale and want a typical street scene with one lane of traffic in each direction and also parking on both side of the street. I was thinking somewhere between 6" to 8" in width. What width is everyone out there using. Thank you for any advice.
If you google road widths you will get more info than one can handle in one sitting !!
It depends on the parking. If you have angle parking on each side, like a downtown area would have, you need a scale 18’ on each side for parking, and a scale 12 to 14’ for each traffic lane. If you have parallel parking on each side, like a side street, you need a scale 9’ on each side for parking, and 10 to 12’ for each lane.
As modelers, we usually compress things to make it all fit, so measure accordingly, and get out some HO scale cars and trucks, and do what fits, and looks, the best.
Mike.
This is what fit for me (HO scale)
5" for one lane of traffic in each direction and parking on both sides. Goes down to 3 1/2" without the parking on both sides.
Keep in mind the era and pre-existing infrastructure. Lane widths were not as standardized in the past. Likewise, they were often narrower. Old slab roads out in the country around here are as narrow as 8’, although most are 9’ or 10’. Same thing in the city, although there was usually parking around. This is good to keep in mind if you’re pinched for space or are simply modeling the transition era, when these sorts of roads had not yet been rebuilt to modern standards.
I’m in the process of creating a city scene on my layout, and I have all the streets based on 12’ lanes. I got the info from some now forgotten web site that was from a civil engineering org in Chicago. Thus…I’m figuring 48 scale feet wide curb to curb for a four lane street or a two lane street with two way parking.
Mark H
Here in Anderson Indiana, each lane was about 12 feet wide. It was dependent upon the type of roadway (main street, residential or back country road, etc) but most business streets and highways were built at about 12 feet per lane. Earlier, in the twenties, roads were only about 20 feet wide total, so, if the portion of the town you wish to model was built in that era, a 20 foot roadway is fine.
If each lane were 10 feet wide, that would be 1 and 3/8s inch. So a two lane street would be 2 and 3/4 inches. 10 feet is what I use for the lanes of my city streets. Modern hiway lanes would be wider. Parking lanes would have been more narrow in the 50s, say 8 or 8 1/2 feet.
As a guide in HO:
8’ = 1 1/8
10’ = 1 3/8
12’ = 1 5/8
15’ = 2 1/16
20’ = 2 3/4
25’ = 3 7/16
Taking a different road…
Put a few HO vehicles down going in both directions, placing each lane as far apart as looks right to YOU. Then measure the cross distance, and that is your road width. It really is not as important as what the roads actually are (width wise), but what looks right to you.
I picked up some I scale road at a train show since I is roughly twice as big as HO I used it for downtown two lanes traffic two lanes parking.
RE: Mobilman44’s post.
Have used this method for years…not an “exact scale” but works great.
Hi,
Yes, a lot of things with building a layout may look better if they are NOT prototypical in size, location, or anything doing with distance. I could also add “color” to that statement. I’ve found this to be true with road widths, distance between tracks, distance between telephone poles, color of concrete and asphalt, etc., etc.
My suggestion is, try the prototype example first, and if it doesn’t look right, adjust it to your liking.