Alberta Transportation

HIGHWAY GEOMETRIC DESIGN GUIDE – URBAN SUPPLEMENT DRAFT - NOVEMBER 2003

U.A.3.2 Selection of Design U.A.4 DESIGN SPEED

Designation
Generally, when selecting the standards to be
As with the selection of the design descriptor, applied to a given roadway, the basic parameter
continuity of roadway configuration, e.g. divided for the selection of geometric standards is design
or undivided is desirable. Continuity of speed is speed. In urban conditions for new construction
also desirable, but not often practical or or major reconstruction this same approach
achievable. Generally, design speeds used in applies. When setting the design speed, service
urban areas are substantially less than those used classification and roadway function need to be
in rural areas. The Highway Service considered.
Classification must be maintained through
municipalities. However, the spacing of It is desirable to provide a reasonable degree of
accesses, design speed, number of lanes, consistency in the design speeds, operating
presence of parking lanes may not be the same as speeds and subsequently the posted speed
in the rural setting and some tradeoffs may be selected within each classification subgroup or
practical and reasonable when local use of the group. For example, the posted speed for all
highway is taken into consideration. minor Arterial roads within a municipality
should be identical or near identical and typically
The following table is a correlation between the the design speed is 10 km/h higher than the
current rural designations and the proposed posted speed. Where the legal speed limit is not
urban designations. When selecting an urban readily available, designers may obtain this
designation, as a minimum, the designer should information from the Department. Where the
strive to provide the Suggested Design speed limit is not posted in urban municipalities,
Designation. the legal speed limit is 50 km/h. Driver
expectations are met in this manner. When
Table U.A.3.2 Coordination of Rural and selecting a design speed for a given roadway
Urban Design Designations within a municipality, the designer should
review the design speed of similar roadways
Rural Designation Suggested Design before making a final decision.
Designation in
Urban Setting Many urban roadways traverse existing built up
RFD – 130 UFD – 110 areas where the physical, environmental and
RAD – 130 UAD–110 or UED–90 property constraints are frequently the prevailing
RAU – 214.4 -120 UED – 90 controls rather than the design speed. Typical
(future 4 lane)
geometric design practice considers the
RAU – 213.0 -110 UAD – 407.4-80 or
RAU – 212.0 -110 UAU – 211-70 constraints imposed and then analyzes the design
RAU – 211.0 - 110 for acceptability from the safety and operational
RAU – 210 -110 UAD – 407.9-60 or points of view. If the analysis concludes that the
RAU – 209 -110 UAU – 210 - 70 design is unacceptable, revisions are required to
RCU – 209 -110 UCU – 211.0-60 minimize the influence of constraints or to
RCU – 208 -110 modify the expectations of the driver. The
All Local Roads ULU differences between the two approaches (that for
Note: The pavement width has been omitted from the table in new urban construction projects and that for
some cases because it was not relevant to the comparison.
severely controlled urban retrofit projects) are
illustrated in the following flow chart:

BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES U.A-8