road wideness question (vehicle, motorcycle, lane, best)

[JakefromSerbia]

Can someone tell me what is the difference between US roads and the European ones?
I heard allot of times that American roads are much wider but didn't find any info my self...so...can someone tell me how wide are American roads and how wide are European roads (please make it in meters )

[Johnny Vanderburgh]

Lane widths in the U.S. vary depending not only on the kind of road, but when the road was built as well.

[jtur88]

Each state in the US has its own standards, but in order to get federal funding for new road construction or major upgrades, there is a federal guideline. That varies according to the class of road.

Standards range from 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters), depending on the expected type and volume of traffic. The 12-foot requirement is general for all Interstate Highways, which have limited access at interchanges only, and with rare exceptions, are at least 4 lanes and divided.

[NJGOAT]

On all U.S. interstates (major highways), the minimum required width of a lane is 12' (3.65 meters). Most other roads (urban and suburban) are between 10' and 11' (3.05 and 3.35 meters). Rural roads vary the most and can be from 12' to 15' (3.65 to 4.57 meters) and are that wide to accomodate farm equipment and oversized loads that are common in those areas. Remember the widths above are per LANE. There is also great variety and the above are to be treated as common averages, not hard and fast rules.

The Federal government requires that no vehicle traveling on interstate highways can exceed 102" (8.5' or 2.6 meters) in width. Some states allow larger sizes on specific roads, but on average roads are designed to accomodate vehicles of this width.

Obviously there are major variations in Europe and some roads in historic cities/towns are VERY narrow. However, the best number I could find is that commonly roads in Europe have a miniumum allowed width of 2.75 meters (~9') with the goal being 3.0 meters (~10') at a minimum on highways. I would say on average European roads are around 10%-20% smaller than U.S. roads.

[texdav]

The narrowest I've ever seen is in Boston where many of the roads are cart path wide. Mnany also are like a maze in that they go in squares ending in the center.Funny that all I saw had no parking signs but their sides were filled with parked cars mostly on the sidewalks.

[Sayantsi]

Basically, roads from before cars are narrow since they only needed to be big enough for horses and carts. That is why older places, like say Europe, that were built out before the car have such narrow roads.

[sailordave]

In some European cities I've visited, some roads were so narrow that only one average car could pass at a time. Delivery drivers use three wheel trucks that use a motorcycle engine and handle bars. Even as small as these trucks are, two could not pass on the road. One had to pull up on the curb to let the other pass. This is frequently seen in historic towns and cities. However, once outside these areas the road opens up like our interstate highways. Besides the price of gas, narrow roads is a big reason for the popularity of motor scooters on some parts of Europe.

[Drover]

Also of note is that full-speed, interstate-grade highways in the U.S. have wider shoulders than most of their European counterparts. Even the autobahn wouldn't make the grade here (though they're much better constructed in most other ways).