Vehicular Traffic

A street full of vehicles in Shanghai

Despite this, the operator of a motor vehicle may regard a street as merely a thoroughfare for vehicular travel or parking. As far as concerns the driver, a street can be one-way or two-way: vehicles on one-way streets may travel in only one direction, while on two-way streets may travel both ways. One way streets typically have signs reading “ONE WAY” and an arrow showing the direction of allowed travel. Two-way streets are wide enough for at least two lanes of traffic.

Which lane is for which direction of traffic depends on what country the street is located in. On broader two-way streets, there is often a center line marked down the middle of the street separating those lanes on which vehicular traffic goes in one direction from other lanes in which traffic goes in the opposite direction. Occasionally, there may be a median strip separating lanes of opposing traffic. If there is more than one lane going in one direction on a main street, these lanes may be separated by intermittent lane lines marked on the street pavement. Side streets often do not have center lines or lane lines.

Parking for Vehicles

Many streets, especially side streets in residential areas, have an extra lane’s width on either or both sides for parallel parking vehicles. Most minor side streets allowing free parallel parking do not have pavement markings designating the parking lane. A somewhat recent trend has been to start marking off parking lanes on more important streets. Some streets are too busy or not wide enough to allow parking on the side. Sometimes parking on the sides of streets is allowed only at certain times. Signs off to the side of the street often state regulations about parking. On the side of some streets, particularly in business areas, there may be parking meters into which coins must be paid to allow parking in the adjacent space for a limited time. There may be parking lane markings on the pavement effectively designating which meter a parking space corresponds to. Occasionally, a street may have enough width on the side that there is angle parking.

Pedestrian Traffic and Vehicular Amenities

Where vehicular traffic is allowed on a street, traffic and parking regulatory signs are often placed near the sides. Bordering the driving/parking sides of many urban streets, there are curbs. Usually, there are strips of land beyond the driving/parking parts of the streets owned by the government entity owning the streets. Sidewalks are often located on these public land strips beyond the curbs on one or usually both sides of the street. There may be an unpaved strip of land between the vehicle-drivable part of the street and the sidewalk on either side of the street, which can be called the parkway or tree lawn. Grass and trees are often grown there for landscaping the sides of the street. Alternatively, there may be openings in wider sidewalks in which trees grow. Streets are often lighted at night with streetlights, which are typically located far overhead on tall poles. Beyond these public strips of land are bordered the front of lots commonly owned by private parties.

Practically all public streets are given a name or at least a number to identify them and any addresses located along the streets. Alleys typically do not have names. The length of a lot of land along a street is referred to as the frontage of the lot.