Standard road widths?

[myredracer]

What are legally required standards for road widths across the US? What are the differences between interstates and rural or city roads? I thought the min. standard road width is 12' everywhere but it's less sometimes like on some rural roads and city streets. Can you predict which ones will be less by map, google or GPS? Is there a min. required shoulder width or a required shoulder at all?

When we're pulling our 8' wide TT on a multi-lane highway/freeway and someone drifts towards us, can we count on there always being 2' of road left to move over? Or if on a one-lane country road and someone approaching us is a bit too close or even over the center line, how much road can we always count on there being available to move over onto or available shoulder?

One thing I learned last year is the a road marked in black on a state road map can not only be narrow, but full of curves, speed changes, elevation changes and potholes. No more roads marked in black for me...

[myredracer]

gbopp wrote:
On Interstate Highways the lanes are 12'. If you're not on an interstate highway, it will vary. Especially in the north east on old roads, they are narrow and often winding.

Judging from your OP, you should stick to Interstate and limited access highways when possible. They will be the easiest and safest for you.

I have no problems whatsoever staying dead center on the narrowest of roads regardless of curves, dips and speed. The wilder the more fun it is. I'm wondering how much room can be expected if you ever need to suddenly move over for any reason. We were on a country road today that appeared to have the TT's wheels almost touching the line on either side. It was on native band land. Maybe different jurisdictions use different regs?

[Old-Biscuit]

Small town I lived in the Main Street was the 'width needed to turn a double team wagon around' in.

That WAS 60'

Then they added parking lanes, then they added second lanes and then they added curbing.......
Eventually the lanes ended up being 9' wide....2 lanes each direction with parking lane and curb/gutter

Truck mirrors routinely whacked each other

[tpi]

There's no absolutes. Construction zones can steal width even on the nicest interstates..with concrete barriers boxing you in completely up to the line. There are stretches that can be nerve wracking. But with the problems with roads, I've driven RVs tens of thousands of miles on these roads without issue. Many many miles of it are just fine, nice and wide and pleasant to drive in an RV.

[Mandalay_Parr]

I've driven all sorts of roads with my 8.5 footer. No problem at all.

[BB_TX]

There are several highways in this area, including interstates, originally built with nice wide lanes. But later they came back and added an extra lane each direction by using the shoulder area and also stealing a foot or so from existing lanes making those lanes much tighter.

[gbopp]

On Interstate Highways the lanes are 12'. If you're not on an interstate highway, it will vary. Especially in the north east on old roads, they are narrow and often winding.

Judging from your OP, you should stick to Interstate and limited access highways when possible. They will be the easiest and safest for you.

[2oldman]

I've not found any roads I would describe as too narrow, but then I don't get too far off the beaten path often.

By far the scariest for me is freeway construction with Jersey barriers on the shoulder, with curves. Effectively NO shoulder, narrow, poorly-marked lanes and lots of traffic.

[valhalla360]

Major freeways and arterials are typically 12' lanes.

Secondary are frequently 11' lanes and local often 10' lanes.

It's pretty rare to see less than 9' lanes.

Of course even interstate freeways are allowed to use 10' during construction with 2' shy distance to obstructions.

No hard and fast rules. You could use the measure function on google earth but probably more effort than it's worth.

[myredracer]

coolbreeze01 wrote:
We have state highways without center lines. Guess I won't see you there :B

Oh great. Will be going down to Monterey and over to Vegas this summer. I'd rather not have to detour around Ca...

[coolbreeze01]

We have state highways without center lines. Guess I won't see you there :B

[2oldman]

The best answer I can come up with is to do your homework and 'drive' it using google maps.