Carpool
Carpooling is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people using one vehicle, carpooling reduces each person's travel costs such as: fuel costs and the stress of driving. Carpooling is a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way to travel as sharing journeys reduces air pollution, carbon emissions, traffic congestion on the roads, the need for parking spaces. Authorities encourage carpooling during periods of high pollution or high fuel prices. Car sharing is a good way to use up the full seating capacity of a car, which would otherwise remain unused if it were just the driver using the car. In 2009, carpooling represented 43.5 % of 10 % of commute trips. The majority of carpool commutes are "fam-pools" with family members. Carpool commuting is more popular for people who work in places with more jobs nearby, who live in places with higher residential densities. Carpooling is correlated with transport operating costs, including fuel prices and commute length, with measures of social capital, such as time spent with others, time spent eating and drinking and being unmarried.
However, carpooling is less among people who spend more time at work, elderly people, homeowners. Drivers and passengers offer and search for journeys through one of the several mediums available. After finding a match they contact each other to arrange any details for the journey. Costs, meeting points and other details like space for luggage are agreed on, they meet and carry out their shared car journey as planned. Carpooling is implemented for commuting but is popular for longer one-off journeys, with the formality and regularity of arrangements varying between schemes and journeys. Carpooling is not always arranged for the whole length of a journey. On long journeys, it is common for passengers to only join for parts of the journey, give a contribution based on the distance that they travel; this enables more people to share journeys and save money. Some carpooling is now organized in online marketplaces or ride-matching websites that allow drivers and passengers to find a travel match and/or make a secured transaction to share the planned travel cost.
Like other online marketplaces, they use community-based trust mechanisms, such as user-ratings, to create an optimal experience for users. Arrangements for carpooling can be made through many different mediums including public websites, social media, acting as marketplaces, employer websites, smartphone applications, carpooling agencies and pick-up points. Many companies and local authorities have introduced programs to promote carpooling. In an effort to reduce traffic and encourage carpooling, some governments have introduced high-occupancy vehicle lanes in which only vehicles with two or more passengers are allowed to drive. HOV lanes can create strong practical incentives for carpooling by reducing travel expense. In some countries, it is common to find parking spaces reserved for carpoolers. In 2011, an organization called Greenxc created a campaign to encourage others to use this form of transportation in order to reduce their own carbon footprint. Carpooling, or car sharing as it is called in British English, is promoted by a national UK charity, whose mission is to promote responsible car use in order to alleviate financial and social costs of motoring today, encourage new approaches to car dependency in the UK.
Carplus is supported by Transport for London, the British government initiative to reduce congestion and parking pressure and contribute to relieving the burden on the environment and to the reduction of traffic-related air-pollution, in London. However, not all countries are helping carpooling to spread: in Hungary it is a tax crime to carry someone in a car for a cost share unless the driver has a taxi license and there is an invoice issued and taxes are paid. Several people were fined by undercover tax officers during a 2011 crackdown, posing as passengers looking for a ride on carpooling websites. On 19 March 2012 Endre Spaller, a member of the Hungarian Parliament interpellated Secretary of the State X about this practice who replied that carpooling should be endorsed instead of punished, however care must be taken for some people trying to turn it into a way to gain untaxed profit. Carpooling means to divide the travel expenses between all the occupants of the vehicle; the driver doesn’t try to earn money, but to share with several people the cost of a trip he would do anyway.
The expenses to be divided include the fuel and possible tolls. But if we include in the calculation the depreciation of the vehicle purchase and maintenance and taxes paid by the driver, we get a cost around $1/mile. There are platforms that facilitate carpooling by connecting people seeking passengers and drivers. There is a fare set up by the car driver and accepted by passengers because they get an agreement before trip start; the second generation of these platforms is designed to manage urban trips in real time, using the travellers’ smartphones. They make possible to occupy the vehicle’s empty seats on the fly and delivering passengers along its entire route; this system automatically performs an equitable sharing of travel costs, allowing each passenger to reimburse the driver a fair share according to the benefit gained by the vehicle usage, proportional
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. This happens twice every weekday; the term is used for a period of peak congestion that may last for more than one hour. The term is broad, but refers to private automobile transportation traffic when there is a large volume of cars on a road but not a large number of people, or if the volume is normal but there is some disruption of speed. By analogy to vehicular traffic, the term Internet rush hour has been used to describe periods of peak data network usage, resulting in delays and slower delivery of data packets; the name is sometimes a misnomer, as the peak period lasts more than one hour and the "rush" refers to the volume of traffic, not the speed of its flow. Rush hour may be 6 -- 4 -- 8 pm. Peak traffic periods may vary from city to city, from region to region, seasonally; the frequency of public transport service is higher in the rush hour, longer trains or larger vehicles are used.
However, the increase in capacity is less than the increased number of passengers, due to the limits on available vehicles, staff and, in the case of rail transport, track capacity including platform length. The resulting crowding may force many passengers to stand, others may be unable to board. If there is inadequate capacity, this can make public transport less attractive, leading to higher car use and shifting the congestion to roads. Transport demand management, such as road pricing or a congestion charge, is designed to induce people to alter their travel timing to minimize congestion. Public transport fares may be higher during peak periods. Season tickets or multi-ride tickets, sold at a discount, are used in rush hours by commuters, may or may not reflect rush hour fare differentials. Staggered hours have been promoted as a means of spreading demand across a longer time span—for example, in Rush Hour and by the International Labour Office. In the morning, evening, Sydney and Melbourne, Auckland and Christchurch are the most congested cities in Australia and New Zealand respectively.
In Melbourne the Monash Freeway, which connects Melbourne's suburban sprawl, to the city is heavily congested each morning and evening. In Perth, Mitchell Freeway, Kwinana Freeway and various arterial roads are congested between peak hours, making movement between suburbs and the city quite slow. Efforts to minimise traffic congestion during peak hour vary on a state by state and city by city basis. In Melbourne, congestion is managed by means including: Inbound transit lanes on busy freeways which are limited to motorcycles and other vehicles with more than one occupant during busy periods. Free travel on metropolitan trains before 7am. Passengers must exit the system at their destination station before 7am. Dedicated bus lanes on major inner city roads such as Hoddle Street. Introduction of dedicated bicycle lanes in the inner city area to encourage cyclists and deter dual-track vehicles. Prohibition of parking along busy roads during peak traffic periods to create an extra lane for traffic.
In Sydney, congestion is managed by many means including: Buses increase frequency from 4 per hour to 12 per hour on the Metrobus network, other routes increase limited and express services The CityRail network runs double-decker electric multiple unit trains that allowed many more passengers to board the trains compared to the 1950s single-level'Red Rattlers', and'Silver Ghosts'. Time-of-day ticket prices allow train commuters to board trains before 6 am or after 7 pm at a cheaper rate on single or day return tickets Transit and/or HOV Lanes are installed on many major arterial roads, The ClearWays project, which allows for broken-down trains on the Sydney Trains network to not affect the running of trains on separate lines due to building bypasses, loop-backs alongside the existing track The Sydney Light Rail Dulwich Hill Line, the only operational light rail line in Sydney, increases headways during peak hour, providing services up to every eight minutes. Traffic congestion is managed through the Traffic Management Centre via a network of Closed Circuit TV's, with operators able to change the timing of traffic signals to reduce wait times Most major motorways have the ability for Contra-flow to allow continuing flow of traffic in case of a major accident Older motor ways have been upgraded from two lanes in each direction, to three lanes in each direction Motor way toll booths have been replaced with electronic toll systems.
In São Paulo, each vehicle is assigned a certain day of the week in which it cannot travel the roads during rush hour. The day of the week for each vehicle is derived from the last digit in the licence plate number and the rule is enforced by traffic police; this policy is aimed at reducing the number of vehicles on the roads and encouraging the use of buses and the urban train systems. In Toronto, rush hour lasts from 8:00-9:00 in the morning and from 2 pm until at least 7:30–8 pm. Montreal, has rush hour times from 6:30–8:30 am and 3:30–6 pm. In the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, rush hour typicall
Bus lane
A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses on certain days and times, used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. Bus lanes are a key component of a high-quality bus rapid transit network, improving bus travel speeds and reliability by reducing delay caused by other traffic. A dedicated bus lane may occupy only part of a roadway which has lanes serving general automotive traffic; the world's first designated bus lane was created in Chicago in 1940. The first bus lanes in Europe were established in 1963 in the German city of Hamburg, when the tram system was closed and the former segrated tram tracks were converted for bus travel. Other large German cities soon followed, the implementation of bus lanes was sanctioned in the German highway code in 1970. Many experts from other countries implemented similar solutions. On 15 January 1964 the first bus lane in France was designated along the quai du Louvre in Paris and the first contraflow lane was established on the old pont de l’Alma on 15 June 1966.
On 26 February 1968 the first bus lane in London was put into service on Vauxhall Bridge. The first contraflow bus lane in the UK was introduced in King's Road, Reading as a temporary measure when the road was made one-way on 16 June 1968; the initial reason was to save the expense of rerouting the trolleybus, due to be scrapped on 3 November of that year. However the experiment proved so successful. By 1972 there were over 140 kilometres of with-flow bus lanes in 100 cities within OECD member countries, the network grew in the following decades; the El Monte Busway between El Monte and Downtown Los Angeles was the first dedicated busway in the US, constructed in 1974. Bus lanes may be located in different locations on a street, such as on the sides of a street near the curb, or down the center, they may be long, continuous networks, or short segments used to allow buses to bypass bottlenecks or reduce route complexity, such as in a contraflow bus lane. Bus lanes may be demarcated in several ways.
Descriptive text such as "BUS LANE" may be marked prominently on the road surface at the beginning and end. Some cities use a diamond-shaped pavement marking to indicate an exclusive bus lane; the road surface may have a distinctive color red, shown to reduce prohibited vehicles from entering bus lanes. Road signs may communicate. Bus lanes may be physically separated from other traffic using bollards, curbs, or other raised elements. In some cities, such as The Hague in the Netherlands, buses are allowed to use reserved tram tracks laid in the middle of the road and raised above the road surface. Bus lanes may have separate sets of dedicated traffic signals, to allow transit signal priority at intersections. Peak-only bus lanes are enforced only at certain times of the day during rush hour, reverting to a general purpose or parking lane at other times. Peak-only bus lanes may be in effect only in the main direction of travel, such as towards a downtown during morning rush hour traffic, with the buses using general purpose lanes in the other direction.
Entire streets can be designated as bus lanes, allowing buses and delivery vehicles only, or a contra-flow bus lane can allow buses to travel in the opposite direction to other vehicles. Some locations allow bicyclists or taxis to use bus lanes, however where bus or bicycle volumes are high, mixed traffic operations may result in uncomfortable conditions or delays. Certain other vehicles may be permitted in bus lanes, such as taxis, high occupancy vehicles, motorcycles, or bicycles. Police, ambulance services and fire brigades can use these lanes. In the Netherlands mixed bus/cycle lanes are uncommon. According to the Sustainable Safety guidelines they would violate the principle of homogeneity and put road users of different masses and speed behaviour into the same lane, discouraged. Bus lanes can become ineffective if weak enforcement allows use by unauthorized vehicles or illegal parking. Evidence from the operation of urban arterials in Brisbane, Australia shows that a properly enforced bus lane, operating as designed without interference, can increase passenger throughput.
In 2009 and 2010 traffic surveys showed that in Brisbane on a number of urban arterials with Bus and Transit lanes, non-compliance rates were approaching 90%. Following enhanced enforcement of the lanes, non-compliance rates dropped and overall efficiency of the Bus and Transit lanes improved with an up to 12% increase in total passenger throughput in the lane. Average bus journey times dropped, in some cases, by up to 19%; some cities, including San Francisco and New York, employ automated camera enforcement, using either stationary cameras adjacent to the bus lane, or cameras on the front of buses to automatically issue citations to vehicles obstructing the bus lane. Bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic and increasing the reliability of buses; the introduction of bus lanes can assist in the reduction of air pollution. Bus lanes marked with colored pavement have been shown to reduce intrusions into bus lanes, speeding travel time and increasing bus reliability.
Some network lengths of bus lanes in major cities, listed by buses per km of bus lane): The busiest bus lane in the United States is the Lincoln Tunnel X
Road surface marking
Road surface marking is any kind of device or material, used on a road surface in order to convey official information. They can be applied in other facilities used by vehicles to mark parking spaces or designate areas for other uses. Road surface markings are used on paved roadways to provide guidance and information to drivers and pedestrians. Uniformity of the markings is an important factor in minimizing confusion and uncertainty about their meaning, efforts exist to standardize such markings across borders; however and areas categorize and specify road surface markings in different ways — white lines are called white lines mechanical, non-mechanical, or temporary. They can be used to delineate traffic lanes, inform motorists and pedestrians or serve as noise generators when run across a road, or attempt to wake a sleeping driver when installed in the shoulders of a road. Road surface marking can indicate regulation for parking and stopping. There is continuous effort to improve the road marking system, technological breakthroughs include adding retroreflectivity, increasing longevity, lowering installation cost.
Today, road markings are used to convey a range of information to the driver spanning navigational and enforcement issues leading to their use in road environment understanding within advanced driver-assistance systems and consideration for future use in autonomous road vehicles. Mechanical devices may be raised or recessed into the road surface, either reflective or non-reflective. Most are permanent. Cat's eye, invented by Percy Shaw in the 1930s, Cat's eyes equip many major routes in the British Isles, they consist of four reflective lenses mounted in a durable white rubber housing, two facing fore and two facing aft. The housing is mounted within a cast iron shoe, which the rubber housing sinks in to when driven over; this provides protection from snow ploughing and allows the lenses to be self-cleaning—they pass a rubber blade when depressed. The lenses are available in a variety of different colours white, yellow/orange, green and blue. Botts' dots, named for the California Caltrans engineer Elbert Botts, who invented the epoxy that keeps them glued down, are one type of a mechanical non-reflective raised marker.
They are used to mark the edges of traffic lanes in conjunction with raised reflective markers. Botts' dots are used across a travel lane to draw the drivers attention to the road, they are used in this way to alert drivers to toll booths, school zones or other significant reduction of speed limit. They are only used in warm climates since snow plows remove them along with the snow. Rumble strips are used for the same purpose. A rumble strip can be a series of simple troughs, ground out of the asphalt. Other alternatives, similar to the Botts' dots, use raised strips, glued to the surface. A specific form of raised strips using thermoplastic is called profile thermoplastic markings; the markings are created by fusing thermoplastic to the pavement and create alternating elevation and recession pattern. This can be done as raised-profile markings. Inverted-profile markings are created by pressing a cog rolling over the markings while they are wet to make them corrugated. Raised-profile markings are created by extruding extra thickness of thermoplastic at a specific interval to create bumps.
Raised-profile markings are sometime known as convex traffic lines. Uses of rumble strips can be along the travel direction, their main way of function is creating a strong vibration when driven over that will alert a driver to various upcoming hazards both by sound and the physical vibration of the vehicle. In some areas in the United States, these rumble strips are located along the side of county and inter state highways, they are oriented so that a driver wandering off the lane of traffic would come in contact with these strips and be forewarned that they are about to leave the roadway. The idea was first started in Atlanta, as a measure to help truck drivers on the bypass after a number of accidents in the late 1980s involved drivers who became distracted or fell asleep and left the road. Reflective markers are used as travel lane dividers, to mark the central reservation or to mark exit slip-roads. Incorporating a raised retro-reflective element, they are more visible at night and in inclement weather than standard road marking lines.
The color of markers varies depending on the country of use. Reflective markers are referred to as raised pavement markers, road studs, sometimes in the UK and Ireland as cat's eye, although this name refers to one particular brand of product; these markers can be used for other purposes such as marking the locations of fire hydrants or at gates of gated communities to indicate that emergency service vehicles have a code or device that allows them to open the gate. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, raised markers are used to mark crosswalks to assist the blind in crossing streets. In colder climates, reflective markers may be installed below ground using an elongated narrow triangle, cut into the road
Curb
A curb, or kerb, is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway. Although curbs have been used throughout modern history, indeed were present in ancient Pompeii, their widespread construction and use only began in the 18th century, as a part of the various movements towards city beautification that were attempted in the period. A series of Paving Acts in the 18th century the 1766 Paving and Lighting Act, authorized the City of London Corporation to create footways along the streets of London, pave them with Purbeck stone and raise them above street level with curbs forming the separation. Small wooden bollards had been put up to demarcate the area of the street reserved for pedestrian use; the Corporation was made responsible for the regular upkeep of the roads, including their cleaning and repair, for which they charged a tax from 1766. By the late 18th century, this method of separating pedestrians from carriageways had been supplanted by the use of curbs.
With the introduction of macadam roads in the early 19th-century, curbs became ubiquitous in the streets of London. Curbs present an obstacle for accessibility in public spaces. In 1945, Jack Fisher of Kalamazoo, celebrated the installation of one of the nation's first curb cuts to facilitate mobility in the center of the city. In the United States and passage of federal legislation on accessibility requirements such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have facilitated travel for wheelchair users and other people. Curbs may fulfill any or several of a number of functions. By delineating the edge of the pavement, they separate the road from the roadside and discourage drivers from parking or driving on sidewalks and lawns, they provide structural support to the pavement edge. Curbs melted snow and ice into storm drains. There is an aesthetic aspect, in that curbs look formal and "finished". Since curbs add to the cost of a road, they are limited to urban and suburban areas, are found in rural areas except where certain drainage conditions make them necessary.
Curbs are not universally used, however in urban settings. In low-speed environments, curbs are effective at channeling motor vehicle traffic and can provide some redirective capacity for low-speed impacts. On higher speed roads, the main function of curbs is to provide drainage and are used in areas of a bridge approach or other locations with erosion risk. A high-speed vehicle that hits a curb may turn towards the sidewalk, rather than be directed away from it. A vehicle that strikes a curb can be vaulted into the air; the vehicle could be vaulted over a traffic barrier into the object the barrier is intended to shield. This is a reason why they are used on rural or high speed roads. Where curb is used with a traffic barrier, the barrier should either be close to or well behind the curb, to reduce the chances of a vehicle going over the barrier. Depending on the area and the distance between the travel lane and the edge of pavement, an edge line can be used to indicate the outside edge of the road.
Retroreflective road marking material can be applied to the curb itself to make it more conspicuous. Curbs are meant to inform pedestrians to stop or slow down as they prepare to cross roadways. For example, cultural context and behavioral norms of a society may affect safety in that people are more to cross on a red light while standing alone than waiting with others at the curb. There are a number of types of curb, categorized by shape, material and whether the curb is combined with a gutter. Most curb is constructed separately from the pavement, the gutter is formed at the joint between the roadway and the curb. Combined curb and gutter has a concrete gutter cast together in one piece. "Integral curb" is curbing constructed integrally as a part of a concrete pavement. Curbs have a vertical or nearly-vertical face called "barrier", "non-mountable", or "insurmountable curb". Vertical-faced curb is used to discourage motor vehicle drivers from leaving the roadway; the square or close-to-square type is still always used in towns and cities, as it is a straight step down and thus less to be tripped-over by pedestrians.
By contrast, a slope-faced curb allows motor vehicles to cross it at low speed. Slope-faced curb is most used on major suburban thoroughfares. In certain locales, such as California, there is an effort to standardize the design to achieve efficiencies in construction and lower costs. Trends include using a 24-inch gutter that balances the increased initial price with lower maintenance costs. At crosswalks and other pedestrian crossings, narrow dropped curb cuts are used to allow small wheeled vehicles such as wheelchairs, children's tricycles and strollers to cross; this makes it easier to traverse for some pedestrians, for those in wheelchairs. Wider curb cuts are used to allow motor vehicles to cross sidewalks at low speed for driveways. In Great Britain, "high containment kerbs" are used at locations with pedestrians, fuel station pumps, other areas that need greater protection from vehicle traffic; these are 14 inches high - much higher than standard curb, with a sloped lower portion and a concave face.
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Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws power from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit; this differs from a tram or streetcar, which uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole. They are distinct from other kinds of electric buses, which rely on batteries. Power is most supplied as 600-volt direct current, but there are exceptions. Around 300 trolleybus systems are in operation, in cities and towns in 43 countries. Altogether, more than 800 trolleybus not more than about 400 concurrently; the trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his "Elektromote" in a Berlin suburb; this experiment continued until 13 June 1882, after which there were few developments in Europe, although separate experiments were conducted in the U. S. In 1899, another vehicle which could run either on or off rails was demonstrated in Berlin; the next development was when Lombard Gerin operated an experimental line at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 after four years of trials, with a circular route around Lake Daumesnil that carried passengers.
Routes followed in 6 places including Fontainebleau. Max Schiemann on 10 July 1901 opened the world's fourth passenger-carrying trolleybus system, which operated at Bielatal, in Germany. Schiemann built and operated the Bielatal system, is credited with developing the under-running trolley current collection system, with two horizontally parallel overhead wires and rigid trolleypoles spring-loaded to hold them up to the wires. Although this system operated only until 1904, Schiemann had developed what is now the standard trolleybus current collection system. In the early days there were many other methods of current collection; the Cédès-Stoll system was first operated near Dresden between 1902 and 1904, 18 systems followed. The Lloyd-Köhler or Bremen system was tried out in Bremen with 5 further installations, the Cantono Frigerio system was used in Italy. Throughout the period, trackless freight systems and electric canal boats were built. Leeds and Bradford became the first cities to put trolleybuses into service in Great Britain on 20 June 1911.
Though it was opened on 20 June, the public was not admitted to the Bradford route until the 24th. Bradford was the last to operate trolleybuses in the UK, the system closing on 26 March 1972; the last rear-entrance trolleybus in Britain was in Bradford and is now owned by the Bradford Trolleybus Association. Birmingham was the first to replace a tram route with trolleybuses, while Wolverhampton, under the direction of Charles Owen Silvers, became world-famous for its trolleybus designs. There were 50 trolleybus systems in the UK. By the time trolleybuses arrived in Britain in 1911, the Schiemann system was well established and was the most common, although the Cédès-Stoll system was tried in West Ham and in Keighley. Smaller trackless trolley systems were built in the US early as well; the first non-experimental system was a seasonal municipal line installed near Nantasket Beach in 1904. The trackless trolley was seen as an interim step, leading to streetcars. In the U. S. A. some systems subscribed to the all-four concept of using buses, trolleybuses and rapid transit subway and/or elevated lines, as appropriate, for routes ranging from the used to the heaviest trunk line.
Buses and trolleybuses in particular were seen as entry systems that could be upgraded to rail as appropriate. In a similar fashion, many cities in Britain viewed trolleybus routes as extensions to tram routes where the cost of constructing or restoring track could not be justified at the time, though this attitude changed markedly in the years after 1918. Trackless trolleys were the dominant form of new post-war electric traction, with extensive systems in among others, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, Atlanta; some trolleybus lines in the United States came into existence when a trolley or tram route did not have sufficient ridership to warrant track maintenance or reconstruction. In a similar manner, a proposed tram scheme in Leeds, United Kingdom, was changed to a trolleybus scheme to cut costs. Trolleybuses are uncommon today in North America, but they remain common in many European countries as well as Russia and China occupying a position in usage between street railways and diesel buses. Worldwide, around 300 cities or metropolitan areas are served by trolleybuses today.
Trolleybuses are used extensively in large European cities, such as Athens, Bratislava, Budapest, Kiev, Milan, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tallinn, Varna and Zurich, as well as smaller ones such as Arnhem, Coimbra, Kaunas, Limoges, Modena, Piatra Neamț, Plzeň, Prešov, Solingen, Szeged, Târgu Jiu and Yalta. See Trolleybus usage by country. Transit authorities in some cities have reduced or discontinued their use of trolleybuses in recent years, while othe
Shoulder (road)
A shoulder, or hard shoulder is an emergency stopping lane by the verge of a road or motorway, on the right in countries which drive on the right, or on the left side in India, the UK, other left-side driving countries. Many wider US and Swedish freeways have shoulders on both sides of each directional carriageway, in the median as well as at the outer edges of the road, for additional safety. Shoulders are not intended for use by through traffic; the purpose of building a shoulder is that in the event of an emergency or breakdown, a motorist can pull into the shoulder to get out of the flow of traffic and obtain a greater degree of safety. Shoulders have multiple other uses, including: Emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks & police cars may use the shoulder to bypass traffic congestion. Active traffic management, used on busy multi-lane roads, may allow'hard shoulder running' by general traffic at reduced speeds during periods of high traffic volumes. In some places a "bus bypass shoulder" may be provided which allows bus services to pass stationary traffic.
Paved shoulders provide additional space should a motorist need to take evasive action or need to recover control of their vehicle before a run-off-road collision occurs. In some rural areas without sidewalks and cyclists may be allowed to walk or ride on the shoulders. On curbed roadways, shoulders move the gutter away from the travel lanes which reduces the risk of hydroplaning, reduces splash and spray of stormwater onto pedestrians using any adjacent sidewalk. Paved shoulders move water away from the roadway before it can infiltrate into the road's subbase, increasing the life expectancy of the road surface. Shoulders help provide extra structural support of the roadway; when semi-truck drivers need sleep and there are no available parking spaces at truck stops and rest areas, either because there are no such facilities nearby or because all semi-truck parking spaces are filled to capacity, drivers may pull over to the highway shoulder and sleep in their truck cabin. The shoulder is slightly narrower than a full traffic lane.
In some cases on older rural roadways, shoulders that existed were hardened with gravel rather than being paved with asphalt or concrete. In Britain, motorway shoulders are now paved, but are still known as'hard shoulders.' Older, gravel shoulders have sometimes been termed soft shoulders by comparison. Because the paved surface ends at that point, they are less safe if they need to be used for emergency maneuvers. Notably, the section of Ontario Highway 401 between Windsor and London had soft shoulders with a sharp slope, blamed for facilitating vehicle rollovers, if drivers accidentally drifted off the paved section of the road and overreacted after hitting the gravel. Modern practice is to build a continuous paved shoulder; the US Federal Highway Administration encourages the placement of a Safety Edge — a 30° compacted taper on the end of the pavement dropoff — to ensure that any driver running off the edge of the roadway is better able to maintain control while trying to steer back onto the roadway.
The Safety Edge is effective on roads where the shoulder is nonexistent. To save money, the shoulder was not paved to the same thickness as the through lanes, so if vehicles were to attempt to use it as a through lane it would deteriorate. In Britain, shoulder running can occur during roadworks, full depth construction is now standard. In some metro areas, road authorities allow shoulders to be used as lanes at peak periods. However, rural shoulders collects various bits of road debris that can make driving there less safe. Drivers will sometimes drift into the shoulder when being overtaken by passing vehicles on two-lane roads. However, it is unsafe, as well as illegal, to abuse the shoulder by'undertaking' passing vehicles that are nearer the center of the road. On older roads, the shoulder may disappear for short periods, near exits or when going across or under bridges or tunnels where the cost savings were thought to outweigh the safety benefits of the shoulder; some roads have a narrow shoulder for significant distances.
This makes it difficult for large vehicles to pull into the hard shoulder altogether. The Jingjintang Expressway in northeastern China is an example of this phenomenon, its shoulder is only 2.4 metres wide, not wide enough for some automobiles. As a result, some motorists are unable to exit the mainline when they need to pull over, so they end up in a position, halfway in the rightmost lane and only on the shoulder; the end result is a traffic jam and a collision. In some jurisdictions in the United States and Canada, buses are allowed to drive on the shoulder to pass traffic jams, called a bus-only shoulder or bus-bypass shoulder. In Ontario, Highway 403 had its shoulders between Hurontario Street and Erin Mills Parkway widened in 2003 so they serve a dual-purpose as bus lanes and accident lanes. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul region of Minnesota, over 270 miles of shoulder have been designated for use by buses; the Route 9 BBS in Central New Jersey which runs along two stretches of shoulders are dedicated for exclusive bus use during peak hours.
The bus lanes, which run for 3 miles are the first component of a planned 20-mile BBS corridor. In the Seattle area, Community Transit and Sound Transit Express commuter buses are authorized to use the shoulders of Interstate 5 a
