[sustran] Minimum and maximum lane widths for arterials in urban areas

Paul Barter tkpb at barter.pc.my
Thu Nov 27 11:56:24 JST 1997


Dear Rajeev Saraf

>For Delhi, while redesigning the road cross section to accomodate bicycle
>tracks, we had proposed 3.0m wide lanes. But there was a strong
>resistance for few people, who said that we could not have lanes in
>urban  areas of width less than 3.5m.
>I would like to if lanes of 3.0m have been implemented anywhere and what
>impact does it have on safety, speed and capacity? How have the codes in
>various countries dealt with lane widths? Any repsonse is welcome.
>thanks.
>

I believe you are asking about the width of the traffic lanes not the
bicycle lanes/tracks.  I am not an engineer, so I can't answer you in great
detail.  But I think that many cities around the world do accept urban
traffic lanes of less than 3.5 metres.

I have just had a look at CROW Record 10, "Sign up for the bike: Design
manual for a cycle-friendly infrastructure" (Centre for Research and
Contract Standardization in Civil and Traffic Engineering - The
Netherlands). [available from C.R.O.W.,  P.O. Box 37, NL-6710 BA EDE, The
Netherlands. Tel. +31 8380 20410, Fax: +31 8380 21112].   This study gives
much detail on the pragmatic Dutch approach to designing for bicycles.  I
notice a number of examples in this report which show traffic lanes of 3.0
metres.  But  I suspect that these are in rather low-speed environments (in
old parts of cities).  I am cc'ing this to Andre Pettinga, who was involved
in writing the CROW Record 10. Perhaps he can provide the technical answer
that you require.

It should also be remembered that road engineering standards should be used
as guidelines and not as divine law.  Accepting lane widths slightly below
"standard" may well cause some problems.   BUT if  you can show that there
are greater safety and efficiency benefits of the new road design then we
should not let the standards stop us from at least having a trial of the
improvement.

Best wishes,

A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific (SUSTRAN)
c/o Asia Pacific 2000, PO Box 12544,   50782 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Fax: +603 253 2361, E-mail: <tkpb at barter.pc.my>
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