Roads can be classified into their functions, by which three road networks can be distinguished. The road sections on these roads consist of four main categories, each with specific characteristics for the designer and the user. Local rural roads, in which the road sections generally belong to the lowest category, are divided in five types according to their capacity. The capacity of higher rank roads can be determined with the highway capacity manual; while for local rural roads the capacity can be determined with the aid of the amount of the damage of the hard shoulder. With this method the different transport modes are expressed in car-units and the pavement-width is used as a variable in the research only. The research into the capacity of local rural roads, as described here, considers not only the pavement width but also the percentage of freight and agricultural transport and the type of soil, while the intensity is expressed in motor vehicles (bicycles and mopeds are not considered). Furthermore attention is given to roads without hard shoulders, by which the capacity of a road is determined by means of so called passing places.
Samenvatting