The purpose of this paper is to outline the latest developments in highway geometrics in the United Kingdom. In 2000, following a review by UK Government into transport policy in the UK, the Highways Agency (an Agency organization of the Department for Transport) was asked to develop a roads improvement strategy that would speed up delivery of large scale road construction schemes over a ten year period. The strategy became known as the Ten Year Plan. One of the elements of the final strategy became known as the "Making Better Use" program. The philosophy behind the title is to create additional and/or ease congestion capacity without moving outside the existing footprint of a highway, but achieving this with minimal environmental impact or compromising the safety of the road. In geometric terms this means looking at the existing standard highway cross section, spacing and layout of junctions to establish where additional lane widths could be developed. Or where by utilizing technology, it could assist in increasing capacity of existing lane configurations and enable lane control, lane entry and lane designation changes to be made. This approach can be considered for all levels of road hierarchy whether the route is a single carriageway, dual carriageway or motorway (freeway). Some of the specific solutions under development within the generic work area "Making Better Use" are as follows: (1) Wide Single 2+1; (2) Displaced Right Turn Junctions; (3) Rapid Widening to Dual Four Lane Motorway; (4) Active Traffic Management; and (5) Permanent Four Lanes.
Samenvatting