United Kingdom In the UK, although the term "dual carriageway" applies to any road with physically separated lanes, it is frequently used as a descriptive term for
major routes built in this style. Such major dual carriageways usually have two lanes of traffic in each direction, with the lane nearest the centre being reserved for overtaking. Occasionally dual carriageways have only one lane in each direction, or more than two lanes each way (sometimes to permit easier overtaking of slower uphill traffic). Different speed limits apply on dual carriageway sections from those that apply on
single carriageway sections of the same class of road, except in cities and built-up areas where the dual carriageway is more of a safety measure. ,
Leeds When first constructed, many dual carriageways—including the first motorways—had no crash- or other barriers in the central reservation. In the event of congestion, or if a driver missed their exit, some drivers made U-turns onto the opposite carriageway; many accidents were caused as a result of their misjudging the speed of approaching traffic on the other carriageway when doing so. The majority of dual carriageway roads now have barriers. Some are heavy concrete obstructions which can bounce a vehicle back into the path of other traffic; others are made from steel ropes mounted on moderately weak posts, where the rope cuts into the vehicle body to slow the vehicle while keeping it against the barrier until it has stopped. Often on urban dual carriageways where the road has been converted from a four-lane single carriageway the central reservation will not be substantial: often just a small steel divider to save space. Turning right (that is, across the line of traffic heading in the opposite direction) is usually permitted only at specific locations. Often the driver will be required to turn left (away from the dual carriageway) in order to loop around to an access road that permits crossing the major road.
Roundabouts on dual carriageways are relatively common, especially in cities or where the cost of a grade-separated junction would be prohibitive. Where space is even more limited, intersections may be controlled by traffic lights. Smaller residential roads adjoining urban dual carriageways may be blocked off at one end to limit the number of junctions on the dual carriageway; often other roads will pass over or under the dual carriageway without an intersection. A dual carriageway with grade-separated junctions and which meets other requirements may be upgraded to
motorway standard, denoted by an
(M) added after the road number (e.g. "
A1(M)" or "
A38(M)"). Unlike in Ireland, there was no official terminology for 'high-quality dual carriageways' until April 2015, when in England a new standard was set to designate certain high-quality routes formally as "Expressways". Many roads such as the
A1, the
A14, the
A19 and the
A42 are built to a high quality, with grade-separated junctions, full barriers at roadside and central reservations and, in some cases, three lanes of traffic. They may still fall short of motorway standard in terms of hard shoulders, the height of overpasses or the quality of intersecting junctions.
Speed limits The
national speed limit applies on dual carriageways (unless it is in a '
built-up area', or a lower limit is posted), which is as follows: A dual carriageway in a built up area will have a statutory speed limit of unless otherwise sign-posted. It is common for such urban dual carriageways to have an increased speed limit of . A road deemed to be in a built up area is indicated by the presence of street lights; on lit dual carriageways that are not considered to be in a built-up area, the speed limit will be clarified with intermittent signs.
Ireland , south of
Newtownmountkennedy. On motorways, the yellow hard shoulder markings are unbroken. Although in Ireland the term dual carriageway technically applies to any road with physically separated lanes, it is usually used only to refer to those route sections that do not have a
motorway designation. Most often it is
national roads (roads with a route number prefix of
N; e.g.
N8) that are built as or upgraded to dual carriageway. A number of non-national roads (for example,
regional roads) are dual carriageway, for example in urban areas near or in cities, or where the road was part of a national route. Dual carriageways of this class differ from motorways in a number of ways. The hard shoulder is demarcated with a dashed yellow line (as opposed to an unbroken yellow line on motorways). The standard speed limit of for national routes usually applies (by default the limit is for non-national roads, even if dual carriageway). Local authorities have the power to apply a limit of up to as used on most motorways (The
High Quality Dual Carriageway section of the
N1 between the end of the M1 and the border with
Northern Ireland and the N25/N22 Ballincollig Bypass in Cork are the only route sections with such special limits). Traffic lights and junctions are permitted at grade on dual carriageways. For older sections of dual carriageway, this has resulted in fewer flyover junctions. Newer dual carriageway sections are usually near motorway standard, with grade-separated junctions, but may not be designated as motorways due to the need to preserve access to adjoining property or to the absence of a non-motorway alternative route. Also, dual carriageways that are not motorway classified do not need to be equipped with emergency phones. Motorway restrictions only apply to motorway sections, rather than all dual carriageway sections of national roads (these are signposted with the
N prefix on the route number, rather than
M). Some
national secondary roads, and
regional roads in particular often have houses, schools and other developments fronting on to them. Less important
national primary roads, and older sections not yet upgraded may also feature such developments built before the introduction of the Irish Planning system in 1964. Today Irish planning policy prohibits such development on National Primary or National Secondary roads where the speed limit exceeds . This policy results from concerns expressed by the National Roads Authority. A
local authority is not obliged to implement this policy and can disregard this policy at its own discretion. This would usually only occur in exceptional circumstances or where planners are overruled by elected councillors using section 140 of the Local Government Act 2001. Accordingly,
hard shoulders are included wherever feasible to provide for the resulting pedestrian and cyclist traffic, and are present on much of the national route network. These hard shoulders may also be used as running lanes by motorised traffic under certain conditions. Until 2005, many motorways and dual carriageways in Ireland did not have crash barriers in the central reservation, the policy being to use a wider median instead. Crash barriers are now mandatory for such routes, and wire cabling or full crash barriers (depending on whether or not the route is a motorway, and median width) have been fitted to existing routes. Between 2000 and 2010, three major types of dual carriageway were built on national road schemes in Ireland: •
High Quality Dual Carriageways (HQDC) – these were built mainly on the major inter-urban routes, to full
motorway standard but without motorway regulations. The Roads Act, 2007 allows for these roads to be redesignated as motorways by ministerial order. Many of the sections of HQDC on the major inter-urban routes have been redesignated as motorways and full motorway regulations were applied when the redesignations came into effect. • Standard dual carriageway of the traditional type was mainly used for schemes on the
N11 road, the
N18 road and the
N25 road. Plans for this type of dual carriageway on the
N20 road have been superseded by newer plans to build a motorway, the M20, to replace most of this route. Traditionally this type of dual-carriageway had a mixture of at grade junctions (including
roundabouts), grade separated junctions, and median crossings. Nowadays they are similar to HQDCs, but minor at grade exits—generally left turn only—are allowed and the design speed (by Irish standards) is only 100 km/h. Median crossings and roundabouts are no longer generally found on these schemes. An example of a standard dual carriageway scheme, opened in 2006, is the
Ennis bypass although this road has grade separated junctions and no median crossings. This route was upgraded to motorway status in 2009. •
2+2 roads—officially these roads are designated as
Type 2 dual carriageways by the
National Roads Authority (NRA). They were created by widening existing roads or building new roads, and have two lanes in each direction with a steel
cable barrier in the middle but no hard shoulder. Most junctions are
at-grade. With the exception of the restricted median width and the lack of lay-bys, this type of dual carriageway is similar to many dual carriageways found in
the UK. The first 2+2 scheme was the N4
Dromod Roosky bypass, opened on 7 December 2007. •
2+1 roads—officially these roads are designated as
Type 3 dual carriageways by the NRA. They have two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, alternating every few kilometres, and usually separated with a steel cable barrier. Sections of 2+1 road were built on the N20 and the
N2. In July 2007, the NRA announced that it would no longer build 2+1 roads and 2+2 roads were built instead.
Germany In Germany the term
Autobahnähnliche Straße (motorway-like road) refers to roads that are similar to German
autobahn in grade-separation and signage. Most of them are designated as
Kraftfahrstraßen (expressways), which means that the roads allow higher speed traffic than is common on other roads. This in turn requires them to have dual carriageways in most cases. An exception is the
2+1 road system in some rural areas; these roads are also referred to as expressways.
Autobahnähnliche Straßen mostly are colloquially referred to as
gelbe Autobahn (yellow motorway) because they have the same technical standard as the
Autobahn but have black on yellow signs instead of the white on blue signs used on the
Autobahn motorway network. These are generally high-speed arterial roads in larger cities or important roads within a federal state that do not connect to major cities, so that they do not fall under the federal budget for the
Autobahn network. The federal road
Bundesstraße 27 is an example where about half of its length is upgraded to a high speed motorway standard. On the basis of their structure these roads have, comparable to the German
autobahn, the legal foundation that no default speed limit exists (design speed 130 km/h), although the standard advisory speed limit () still exists. Nevertheless, expressways are often given speed limit signs.
Exit signs. At the moment some (blue) motorways have been taken out of the
Autobahn network programme but still have the blue signs (e. g. the
B 59, formerly
A 540 near
Grevenbroich); and on the other hand some former non-
Autobahn (yellow) motorways have been added to
Autobahn budgeting but the signs have not been changed either (e. g. parts of the
B 6, now
A 36 in the north of the
Harz highland area in Saxony-Anhalt). Motorways that are neither in the
autobahn network nor in the
Bundesstraße network are given black on white signs, following the same sign code as high-speed dual carriageways—this is mostly seen on urban trunk roads.
Italy to
Livorno of the
Strada statale 1 Via Aurelia is classified as
strada extraurbana principale. at
Porta Ardeatina in
Rome, classified as
strada urbana di scorrimento.
Roads in Italy are an important mode of
transport in Italy. Italian Highway Code (
Codice della strada) divides dual carriageways into three different classifications: •
strada extraurbana principale (meaning
main highway) or
type-B road: a road with separate carriageways, at least two lanes for each direction, paved shoulder on the right and no cross-traffic. This type of road is quite similar to an
autostrada or
type-A road (Italian official name for
motorways or
freeways), but its building standards are lower. Access limitations and drive behaviour on type-B roads are the same as the motorways (no pedestrians, bicycles and other slow vehicles), as well as the signage (except for the background color, that is blue instead of green). Speed limits on type-B roads are up to . Type-B roads are always toll-free. •
strada extraurbana secondaria (meaning
secondary road) or
type-C road. This category contains all the roads in non-urban context that are neither
autostrada (type A) nor
strada extraurbana principale (type B). This means that a dual carriageway that may not be classified as type-B road, since it does not meet such quality standards, belongs to this category. For type-C roads, there are neither special signage nor access restrictions, unless a specific sign is placed. The speed limit is , on both single and dual carriageways. •
strada urbana di scorrimento (meaning
urban expressway) or
type-D road: a road in urban context, with separate carriageways, and at least two lanes for each direction. At-level junctions with smaller roads, regulated by traffic lights, are allowed as well as
roundabouts. Unless a prohibition sign is placed, there are not access restrictions. Speed limits on this type of road are up to . Italian type-B and type-C roads do not follow a specific numbering criterion. They may be numbered as
Strade Statali (SS; "state roads"),
Strade Regionali (SR; "regional roads"),
Strade Provinciali (SP; "provincial roads") or
Strade Comunali (SC; "municipal roads").
Spain outside
Madrid. It is a duplication of the old National Road 5. The Spanish word for dual carriageway is
autovía (literally
autoway). All of them are government-owned and not tolled. First-generation autovías, built in the 1980s and early 1990s, were just duplications in parallel of existing roads, as shown in the photograph. Modern autovías are two carriageways built from scratch, leaving the old road they replace as an alternative route for pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles. Private properties may have direct access to an autovía, as well as
bus stops and
gas stations in the hard shoulders. A
controlled-access highway (motorway) in Spain is referred to as
autopista (literally
autotrack). They may be operated by private companies and be tolled. The two major accesses to Spain from France,
AP-7 into
Catalonia and
AP-8 into the
Basque Country, are autopistas. In comparison, the prime road between Spain and Portugal is the photographed
autovía A-5. In both autopistas and autovías, the generic
speed limit is , minimum speed is , driving backwards is strictly prohibited, and they shall not have at-grade junctions.
Croatia Dual carriageways or expressways in
Croatia () are non-
tolled roads with 2 or more lanes in each direction, but without
emergency lanes. The
main motorways in Croatia are also dual carriageways, but they have emergency lanes and tolls. Many bypasses and beltways of smaller cities in Croatia have been recently constructed or planned as dual carriageways. All dual carriageways in Croatia house a central median, usually fitted with guardrails. The most heavily used expressways in Croatia is the
D10 road, connecting capital
Zagreb to
Vrbovec and
Križevci. ==Other regional implementations==