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DESIGNING FOR VEHICLE

DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Vehicles to be considered:

• Cycles
• Motor-cycles and scooters
• Automobiles: cars and small vans up to 21/2 tonnes unladen weight
• Commercial vehicles up to 10 tonnes unladen weight
• Public Service Vehicles- buses and coaches

Turning circles

Apart from the physical dimensions, it is necessary to know the

critical characteristics of the vehicle in motion, particularly when
maneuvering while parking or preparing to load. These characteristics
are complicated, and usually the manufacturer will quote
solely the diameter of the turning circle, either between kerbs or
between walls.

Maneuvering areas for various vehicles for the following operations:

• Turning through 90
• Causing the vehicle to face in the opposite direction by means of
a 360 turn in forward gear
• Ditto in reverse gear
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Dimensions of typical road vehicles
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Dimensions of typical road vehicles
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Dimensions of typical road vehicles
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
The broad hierarchy of roads is:
• Motorways and trunk roads
• Distributors (primary, district and local)
• Access roads.

Geometric characteristics of typical vehicles turning through 90 degrees

DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Access roads in residential areas are of three types:

• Major access roads (or transitional). These are short lengths of

road connecting a distributor road with the minor access road
network, the latter at a T-junction. They are normally 6m wide,
have no direct access to property along their length, and serve
from 200 to 400 dwellings.

• Minor access or collector roads. These form the backbone of

the network, will serve up to 200 dwellings and be 5.5m wide
with only one footway. Occasionally a single track ‘car way’
2.75m wide is used for access to about 50 dwellings, in conjunction
with a separate footpath system.

• Shared private drives, mews courts, garage courts and housing

squares. Generally these facilities serve up to 20 dwellings, and
are designed for joint pedestrian/vehicle use with hard surfaces,
no upstand kerbs and no footways. Access to them from the
collector roads is marked by some device such as a short ramp or
rough surface material, with the purpose of slowing down the
traffic.
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
Designed controls, Conventionally roads were designed so that cars could be
parked on both sides, and two cars could still pass.
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
ROAD DESIGN DETAILS

Characteristics of various carriageway widths on two-way roads

DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations

Junction design; the effect of kerb radius on

Dimensions of flat-top hump traffic flow atthe T-junction of two 5.5m wide
roads
 DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations

Required heights for unobstructed visibility

Chicane types of traffic slowing device

Required distances for unobstructed visibilitys
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations
 DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations

Basic parking dimensions. Large European parking or

American bay or stall 5.82.8, allow 33m2 per car, including
half the clear zone but no access gangways
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Types of multi-storey car parks
DESIGNING FOR VEHICLES
Design considerations

Truck parking and loading bays:

diagonal (45) for the largest vehicles Minimal loading docks appropriate for limited
number of vehicles per day, extremely high land
costs or other physical
restraints
END