Dual carriageway

A dual carriageway in Great Britain.

A dual carriageway (British English) or divided highway (American English) is a type of road. It is an important route that usually carries long-distance traffic.

A dual carriageway has four lanes (2 lanes each side), and is always separated by a man-made barrier or strip of land.

Dual carriageways have no hard shoulder. A hard shoulder is an area at the side of a road where drivers can stop if there is a serious problem, a breakdown for example.

Dual Carriageway Media

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  Map by Cassius Ahenobarbus, zoomed in to show the Via Portuensis, with the dual carriageway splitting close to the city of Rome. This is a very early (perhaps the first) example of a dual carriageway.

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  Autostrada A20 runs through the island of Sicily in Italy linking Palermo to Messina

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  Clara Barton Parkway outside Washington, D.C.

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  Jersey barriers may be used to separate the carriageways where the space is narrow. See this example near Málaga, Spain. There is also a bus stop in the bottom-right corner of the picture; it would not exist in a motorway.

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  Diagram of types of road in the UK

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  Sign informing motorists of an upcoming section of dual carriageway in Seacroft, Leeds

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  A typical modern Irish dual carriageway (opened 2004) along the N11, south of Newtownmountkennedy. On motorways, the yellow hard shoulder markings are unbroken.

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  An example of a 2+2 dual-carriageway in Ireland. This type is similar to many found in the UK.

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  Die Bundesstraße 6 bei Harlingerode, Westblick Richtung Goslar/Immenrode, Dezember 2018. Im Hintergrund der Windpark Harlingerode.