What is the correct width of a two lane road through a small town?
What is the correct width for the sidewalks?
Thanks in advance
Harold
Time for some philosophy. What do you mean by “correct?”
Ideally, you should check the highway department’s specifications, convert them to 1:87 and use that. But, that’s probably not what you will want. For one thing, how much space do you have to devote to roads? For most of us, the answer is “not enough.”
So, we use selective compression and make our roads smaller. Here, the main road running foreground-to-background is 3 inches wide, while the cross street going left-to-right is only 2 1/2 inches. The sidewalk grid, applied with a #2 pencil, is 1/2 inch squares.
Contrast this with the side street, viewed from 90 degrees away:
Here, I was really squeezed between the front of the layout and the tracks, so I made this road smaller than I would have liked. One the other hand, I realized that it’s actually an effective modeling technique. By narrowing both the road and sidewalk, I managed to get the “urban canyon” look that I was seeking, even though the buildings are only 2-4 stories tall.
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
Little has changed in the city streets since the late 40s. A few sidewalks have been removed to widen the lanes and a few streets have had major work done on them to add additional lanes, but the width still stands at about 10 to 12 feet per lane and most side streets are really about three lanes wide total. Small towns would have been this way as well. Some of the main str
Thanks
While I got you . What do you hit on Photo Buckett to get your picture directly on the forum?
Thanks for the chart. Something doesn’t seem correct. The numbers are in Meters and the conversion would make the road to large.
I have been on roads barely wide enough for one car. Guess it depends on how much space you have available and the look you want to obtain. This is where a scale ruler comes in mighty handy. Measure your vehicle width and add 3 feet for safe oncoming traffic to pass. Double that for two lane traffic or four times if you want parking for cars on each side. Sidewalks probably 3’ minimum to 8’ if you have benches and trees along your sidewalks.
Actually, the chart is right on. That is why an earlier responder asked how much space on your layout can you dedicate to roads. He meant that prototype roadways eat up a lot of real estate! Scale size roads built to prototype dimensions would take up an awfully large portion of our layouts.
While I also selectively compress my roadways, I find that lanes 9 1/2 feet wide are a decent compromise for “front of layout” roadways. However, I like to use narrower lanes the farther the roadway is from the aisle. In fact, I use a bit of forced perspective on my roadways that run from the aisle to the backdrop and place smaller vehicles (VW bugs and sports cars) near the backdrop while saving larger vehicles (trucks and buses) for placement near the aisle.
3 inches and call it a day…unless its background…get away with a smaller road
Hit the img code in the Image Links box while viewing the photo you want.
Mike
On a related topic, doesn’t Plastruct make a styrene sheet that has a 1/2 inch grid which would be suitable for HO sidewalks?
There is no direct connection. Try clicking on 'Share" or URL or something like that. Copy the information given to you, and then open the forum, click on “Insert Image” and paste your URL there.
They are widths for the right of ways for a finished road. I live in the sticks where the road is only wide enough for two cars. If you drive in towards civilization the roads get wider. The big agricultural drainage ditches on either side of the road become smaller ditches and then eventually they get enclosed with storm sewers. Further along bike lanes and sidewalks are added in to the right of way.
You can make your roads narrow and most people won’t notice. I will be making my roads narrow and mostly dirt and gravel. I will have ditches in most places and a bit of green space on each side. Why? Because my layout isn’t in Europe and it just wouldn’t look right to me if I didn’t. Less is more. I would rather have less on my layout and have it look right to me by using the space for proper looking roads. But that’s just me.[:)]
Just for the record, civil engineering in the U.S. is still done in miles/feet and 10ths of a foot, and building/sitework construction is done in feet and inches. And speed limits are in Miles per Hour.
So to most of us down here, that chart is like a foregn language.
As others have mentioned, highway standards vary quite a bit from region to region and by type of road, not to mention its age and other factors that limit improvements.
In any event, scale 12-14’ lanes generally look fine for model roads, and 5-8’ sidewalks look “normal” in our little towns.
We live on the border between suburbia and farm land, the state road in front of our house is about 28’ and
The road in front of my house is supposedly 2 lane, but is 18 feet wide, pavement edge to pavement edge. With mail boxes set close to the side, most cars drive down the middle. So when two meet, they have to move very close to the edge and slow down to pass between mailboxes. They take a beating around here.
Another aspect is how much paved and unpaved shoulder does the road have. You can actually tell the state and county line where the shoulder just stops at the county line and the ditch runs right up to pavement.
I wasn’t implying anything. I was only offering the chart as a possible starting point as far as standards go. Our highways in North America are goat paths compared to highways in Europe. Yet I find our North American “city” street’s better. The physics of road design are the same all over the world. What changes is how much is spent on those roads by governments. That is usually dictated by how much usage they get.
I have been in many parts of the world including most of the State’s in the U.S. There is not a country in the world that doesn’t have its share of goat paths. Going 200 miles up a road like this one and totally getting off the grid at a small lake, makes goat paths my favourite kind of road.[:D]
[#offtopic]
Meter (1), a device designed to measure and indicate the quantity of a substance supplied, or the distance travelled, and or the time elapsed, and fare payable.
Metre (1) a unit of measurement in the metric system ( 1 metre = 39.37 inches.) (2) rhythm in poetry and music.
Meter (2) An Americanism [:P] [;)]
Seriously, most modern general aviation aircraft drawings U.S and UK use feet, inches, tenths of inches and thousandths. Interestingly, to me, was that Lockheed L-10A Electra drawings originating from the early 1930s used every fraction of an inch possible, from 1/2 to 1/64 on the same part, needed to keep alert, though what needed even more attention were Embraer drawings that were built using metric measurements but using US made hardware, ie drill 3/16" hole 28 mm (millimetres) from rivet line Stn …[%-)]
Having said that, and probably not for this thread, apart from S scale why are the rest expressed as a relation of mm/ feet, ie HO 3.5mm / 1 foot [?]
Cheers, the Bear. [:D]
JaBear,
The metric system, no matter how well conceived or intended, lacks the natural human proportion of the English system and this I believe is why it has yet to replace English measure in North American Construction (I am a residential designer, master carpenter, and historic restoration consultant by trade). Divide a meter by three and tell be what you get? I can give you a very precise answer with a foot or a yard or a mile when divided by 3 or 2.
Back to highways. The other issue not mentioned thus far is what era one might be modeling?
This idea of broad rights of way, with deep drainage ditches and wide paved shoulders is a relatively new idea. One that even today is only implemented where space and resources allow. Sure we have roads like that around here, but for every mile of modern, wide, paved shoulder, well drained rural highway, we have a 100 miles of narrow two 12’ lane roads with no shoulders (paved or otherwise) or congested suburban or urban streets squeezed between long established private property and/or natural barriers.
Brent,
I meant no disrespect, but some years ago this topic came up on the Bachmann forum, and a Canadian was very insistent that all roads had, and “needed”, paved shoulders and drainage ditches.
I sent him some Bing Maps views of roads around here - he was shocked. Then he asked “where do they put the snow” - I laughed.
And even with my engineering/architectural background, I must admit, I looked at that chart and had no mental concept of those distances - I simply don’t think in Meters.
Sheldon
I have not read all replies, but generally, if you make everything exact scale width, it tends to look too wide, not to mention takes up space. Especially if you want two lane traffic with parking along both sides of the street.
I think it actually looks better to make things a little narrower than true scale.
LION wants to build 7th Avenue in New York City, right in front of Penn Station. Well, him is going to model only the parking lane and one traffic lane, and the rest will of course be off of the table.
Seventh Avenue is a long street, so a few blocks down I will model the Fashion District with the distinctive sculpture of a Button on a needle.
Across the isle is Times Square (Also on Seventh Avenue.) That should be fairly easy to model, you do not have to model the buildings, only the electric signs that are on the buildings. I will build “Times Square” where Broadway crosses 7th Ave, but Broadway is now a pedestrian mall, and so I can fill that with tables and potted trees. And a police officer on horse back.
ROAR