Road Pattern

There are various types of road patterns used in highways, when the road is constructed in a pattern like rectangular pattern, radial pattern, hexagonal pattern, etc. for proper management of traffic it is called a road pattern.

Roadways are very essential in the development of the settlements in a city.

However, recent development does not give importance to the study of road patterns giving rise to roads that are not interconnected.

The increasing distance between the residential and commercial center of the city increases the dependency.

The roadway patterns also increase the response time, road drainage, the emergency response of vehicles, and time to reach a certain place.

Types of road pattern in transportation engineering:

Following are the various roadway pattern probably used in road planning as follows:

1.Rectangular pattern or Grid pattern:

This rectangular pattern is a scheme where the streets and roads are moving perpendicular to each other in the form of a grid or block thus forming a block or grid pattern.

Advantages of Grid pattern:

1. Rectangular plots can be divided into small rectangular sections to form roads from front to back.
2. It has adopted the pattern for city roads.
3. The roads in this pattern are relatively easy to construct and maintain.

Disadvantages of Grid pattern:

1. This pattern is not very convenient because at intersections, vehicles face each other.

Radial pattern or star pattern:

In radial road pattern, the network of roads is in the form of circles originating from the centre of the area.

It is a mixture of radial and block patterns wherein a radial network of roads exits from the middle with a block pattern network of roads in between the radial main roads.

Advantage of radial pattern:

1. It prevents traffic from reaching local flow routes in the direction of the event site that operates in favor of the departure traffic flow.
2. If one is blocked then traffic can run on the other side.

Disadvantages of radial pattern:

1. This roads proves particularly effective if two-lane ramp traffic is not to be merged on the downstream end of the ramp.

Radial and grid pattern:

This pattern is a combination of radial and grid patterns through which the radial network of roads originates externally from the center.

The main radial roads are interconnected by offering a grid pattern between the principal roads.

The radial and the circular pattern is the road pattern in which the main roads originate from a central point and connected together by narrow roads that radiate outward.

Advantages of Radial and grid pattern:

1. This road protect the movement of vehicles with high ratios of 3-way intersections.
2. It reduce cut-through traffic by similar or other means.
3. Improvement of land-use efficiency and unit density.

Disadvantages of Radial and grid pattern:

1. The separation of the islands and exit lane (splitter island) must be spread far enough apart.
2. Traffic signals, pavement marking and lighting should be sufficient so that drivers should understand reduce their travel speed.

Hexagonal road pattern:

This pattern is a network of roads that grow in such a manner in different directions forming hexagons.

Advantages of hexagonal pattern:

1. Three roads meet the boundary of the area formed by the sides of the hexagon.

Disadvantages of hexagonal pattern:

1. Traffic signals, pavement marking, and street lighting should be sufficient so that drivers understand to reduce their travel speed.

Minimum travel road pattern:

In this road pattern, the town is contented by sector centres, suburban facilities and neighbourhood centres by the highway which required minimum time reach the city centre.

Advantages of minimum travel pattern:

1. This type of potentially serious crash certainly ends.

Disadvantages of minimum travel pattern:

1. Traffic signals, pavement marking and lighting should be sufficient, so that drivers know that they should reduce their travel speed.
2. Intersections can be particularly challenging for older drivers.

Linear pattern:

It consists of road grow linearly in one direction possibly due to the presence of some natural sources such as sea or ocean at one side of the city.

Also read: Principles of Planning & Town Planning

Conclusion:

There are various types of roads pattern, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The choice of road pattern depends on various factors such as locality, layout of city and planning engineer.