VU 94 ROAD DESIGN

English summary
CONTENT

Swedish design guidelines for state roads ...............................................................................1

Present state road network and organization ........................................................................1
Speed limits ................................................................................................................................2
Principal design decisions in VU94 .........................................................................................2
Separation of vulnerable road users .......................................................................................3
Design vehicles and regulations ...............................................................................................3
Cross-section..............................................................................................................................5
Road side areas..........................................................................................................................7
Alignment .................................................................................................................................10
Sight distance requirements ..................................................................................................11
Frictions and lateral g- forces.................................................................................................11
Horizontal alignment .............................................................................................................12
Vertical alignment.................................................................................................................13
Overall level-of-service criteria ............................................................................................16
Intersections .............................................................................................................................17
Road markings ........................................................................................................................22
Illumination .............................................................................................................................23
Wildlife measures....................................................................................................................24

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Swedish design guidelines for state roads

The objective of this memorandum is to give a short overview of the Swedish state road
network, its organization and the present design guidelines VU94 (Road Design 94). It is
written by Torsten Bergh, Road Design office at the Headquarters of the Swedish National
Road Administration (SNRA).

Present state road network and organization

Sweden has three types of road owners, the Swedish state, communes and private
organizations. The main principle is that the Swedish state owns rural roads of public interest
and also rural road connectors in villages and towns.

State roads, altogether almost 100.000 km, are administratively divided into three groups:
• national
• regional
• local

The national road network, some 8000 km, connects regions and major towns, see map below.
Major improvements on national roads are ranked and funded within a national investment
plan approved by the Swedish government every 4 years.

Improvement schemes on regional, some 9900 km, and local

state roads compete with transit projects and are funded
within regional investment plans.

The SNRA is the state road owner with one headquarters and
seven regional Road Management Directorates. These are in
many situations legally sovereign bodies.

The following table gives road lengths and average AADTs

(axle-pairs/d) after speed limit and road width (m) for 2- lane
roads, semi- motorways and motorways.

Speed limit
50 70 90 110
Road L AADT Road L AADT Road L AADT Road AADT L
type km ap type km ap type km ap type ap km
<5.6 2145 382 <5.7 38972 167 <6.6 12059 732 <6.6 488 1672
<6.6 2484 965 <6.6 15977 625 <7.9 3881 1904 <7.9 841 476
<10 1832 2498 <7.9 2255 1719 <10 6170 2996 <10 1103 1090
> 10 170 7394 <10 1458 3284 <11.5 >11.5 5243 1108
1) including SMW >10 636 7353 >11.51) 2234 7157 SMW 8657 184
MW=motorway SMW=semi-motorway MW 65 39534 MW 17485 L

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Speed limits

Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce general speed limits. The
present rules base speed limits are 110 kph on motorways and semi- motorways, 70 kph on
rural roads and 50 kph on urban roads.

The SNRA headquarters can decide on 110 and 90 kph on rural roads. Criteria include traffic
flows, road width, sight distances, road side area design, wildlife fences, vulnerable road users
and accident record. The regional council has the authority to decide on local lower speed
limits on rural roads. Proposed decisions are always submitted to SNRA for consideration.
Communes can decide on 30 kph in urban areas.

The present rules for 90 and 110 are heavily criticized by traffic safety authorities and
organization who often claim that median barriers are required at these speeds There are now
some 4500 km two- lane 110 kph-roads, many of those less than 6.6 m wide with low traffic
volumes, on average AADT 488, see table above.

The Swedish go vernment has commissioned SNRA to propose a new system for speed limits.

Principal design decisions in VU94

The main design decisions according to VU94 are:

• the reference speed: defined as the existing or planned speed limit
• design traffic volumes: normally defined as the average AADT-flow during the
project opening year and the peak hour flow year 20 after the opening year (on
average 12 % of AADT20)
• road classification: national, local or regional
• network classification for pedestrians and bikers: daily work trip network, leisure
network or general

VU94 states that the desired reference speed should normally be:
• 90 and some times 110 on national rural roads
• 90 and sometimes 70 on regional rural roads
• 70 and sometimes 50 on local roads
• sometimes speed control, i.e. with geometry to restrict speeds

The reference speed gives traditional minimum values for stopping sight distances, horizontal
curves, crests and sags based on an assumed design speed normally 10 kph above reference
speed. However, a new concept for Sweden since VU94 is that two level-of-service criterias
for peak hour traffic were introduced. These are:
• the average peak hour space mean speed should preferably not be lower than the
reference speed minus 10 kph
• the average tail time before overtaking a truck should not exceed 5 minutes
Combinations of cross-section, sight distance and alignment measures could reach average
space mean speeds and maximum tail times.

Regional authorities often claim that regional and local roads in areas with low population
density should have higher speed limits and reference speeds. There are as already said many

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narrow low volume roads with 90 and 110 kph, which according to the recommendations
should have been 70 kph.

Separation of vulnerable road users

General recommendations are given how and when to separate vulnerable road users along
and across state roads due to network classification, speeds and flows as follows
along:
• how; four levels of separation are described – mixed traffic, bike lane or hard
shoulder, ped/bike-way separated with kerb and ped/bike-way with a median.
Ped/bike-ways have normally two-way traffic.

• when:
- hard shoulder 0.75 m or wider is accepted as a reasonable standard for daily work
trip network when the flow is very low on 90 and 110 kph-roads
across:
• how: four levels of measures are described: no measures, crossing with or without
road markings normally with some kind of speed control, traffic signals and grade-
separated
when: median kerbed islands to allow staged crossings are accepted as a a reasonable
standard for daily trip road network at AADTs below 3000 and rather low bike- flows
on 90 kph-roads

There are a lot of opinions within and outside the SNRA on these criteria. An overview is
ongoing scheduled to present new proposals during 2001.

New traffic rules were introduced last year with an absolute yield rule for motor vehicles at
pedestrian crossings. A campaign was also launched to decrease the number of crossings
based on a belief that traffic safety is to be enhanced.

Design vehicles and regulations

Sweden has historically vehicle regulations which diverge from most other European
countries except Finland.

The only maximum length rule for rigid and articulated vehicles used to be 24 m. The width
restriction is 2.6 m since the 80-ies. There is no formal height rule but the normal vertical
clearance on state roads is 4.5 m.

State roads are classified in three bearing capacity classes, BK1 (10/18/60), BK2 (10/16/52),
BK3 (8/12). Brackets give non-driving single axle, tandem axle and gross weight).

The EURO-membership introduced the European circle maneuverability tests for rigid and
articulated vehicles as follows:

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There is an old specific Swedish trailer rule, the road corner test. This rule states that a trailer
should be able to turn around a corner with an 8.5 m width.

The effect of these new rules are 15 m long tandem axle buses instead of our present 14.5 m
ones and 25.3 m articulated vehicles. Swedish semi-trailers tend to be longer than the normal
European maximum length of 16,5 m.

VU94 proposes that state road network intersections should normally be designed for

- 14.5 m tandem-
axle bus 4,6 7,5 2,4

14,5

- 16 m semi- trailer
and an average 24
m truck with
trailer

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with reasonably comfortable driving.

VU94 also gives speed performance on grades for design vehicles, see the chapter on
Alignment and fuel and emission performance, i.e. fuel consumption – petrol and diesel -
(ml/carkm) due to speed, speed variation and calculation year, see figure below.

180 Fuel consumption car ml/km EVA2.3 incl aging excl road surface effects

160
S1 00
Correction for diesel cars
140 S4 00 - 0,88*B for petrol
70y 00 - 0,14*B for diesel
120 70m 00
CO2 (g/km)=2,36*B
50y 00 SO2 (g/km)=0,000058*B
100
50c 00
80 Konstant 98
S1 10
60 S4 10
T70Y 10
40 T70M 10 B 2,80 kr/l
C02 1,50 kr/kg
T50Y 10
20 SO2 20 kr/kg
T50C 10
V (km/tim)
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130

Cross-section

The cross-section chapter is presently revised. A draft version has been approved by the
SNRA-board. It includes the following 6 standard cross-sections.
• speed control cross-section
• narrow 2- lane roads with paved widths 4 m to 6,5 m normally with at-grade
intersections
• normal 2- lane roads with paved widths 6,5 m to 10 m normally with at-grade
intersections
• 2+1-roads with median barriers with paved widths 13 m to 14 m with or without at-
grade intersections
• 4-lane dual-carriageway roads with median barriers with paved widths 2*8 m with
grade-separation
• motorways normally with 2*11.25 m carriageways and wide medians (>13 m) or
median barriers

Traffic lanes at 90 and 110 kph are normally 3.75 m.

The choice of cross-section is a step-wise procedure mainly controlled by road classification,

target cross-section for the actual link and traffic flows, space mean speeds, degrees of
saturation, average tail-time, construction costs and intrusions for the actual section. The

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following trigger values to consider a cross-section are proposed based on average costs and
intrusions:
• normal two- lane up to opening year AADT 4000
• 2+1 with median barrier from AADT 4000
• 2+1 with median barrier and grade separation from 8000
• dual carriageway road from 8000
• motorway from 12000

A very common cross-section in the present national road network is the wide two-lane road,
i.e. 13 m, with wide shoulders or wide lanes:

This cross-section is substituted in the new draft with the 2+1-solution with a median barrier.
The alternating sections with one and two-lanes are 1 to 2.5 km. Transitions from a two-lane
section to a one- lane section is 2*150 m. The main reason for this is the focus on traffic
safety. The Swedish national investment plan concentrates on rehabilitation projects where
existing 13 m roads are converted to 2+1 with median barriers.

VU94 is not very specific on cross-section choices for low traffic volume roads. The
following very general advices are given based on reference speed (VR), traffic flow opening
year (AADT-0) and construction cost and intrusion level – normal, major, huge.

VR AADT-0 Costs Paved Cross-

intrusion width (m) section
90 >2000 normal 9 7.5 S0.751)
major 8.5 7.0 S0.75
<1500 normal 8.5 7.0 S0.75
major 7.5 6.0 S0.75
70 >2000 normal 8.5 7.0 S0.75
major 7.5 6.0 S0.75
<1500 normal 7.5 6.0 S0.75
major 7.5 6.0 S0.75
1) lane width 2*3.75 m hard shoulders 2*0.75 m

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These low- volume cross-section recommendations are often considered to be too wide and
expensive.

A traffic situation model from VU94 can be used to describe available level-of-service for
various traffic situations, e.g. two trucks in a meeting situation at a 70 kph road where they
need to lower their speeds:

2 trucks in on a 70 kph road in a

meeting situation with lowered speed:
0.2 + 2.6 + 1.0 +2.6 + 0.2 =6.6 m

u = distance between parked vehicle and edge of carriageway

v = distance between moving vehicle and edge of carriageway with or without low kerb
h = distance between moving vehicle and edge of carriageway with kerb>0.2 m
a = distance between two moving opposing or overtaking vehicles

Road side areas

VU94 introduced an extensive use of forgiving roadside areas in Sweden. Two new types
were introduced beside the traditiona l design:
• A: guard-rails or wide smooth (at least 1:6) safety zones without fixed objectives at
least within 10, 9 or 6 m depending on speed limit 110, 90 or 70.

First outer cut-slope width can be reduced from 3.0 to 0.5 m. Outer slope connects to
environment at 1.0 m above road surface. French drains needed.

• B: same as A but 1:4 slopes also with French drains.

• C: traditional 1:3 inner and 1:2 outer slopes normally 1:2 m. >1 m deep open ditches

Drainage with open ditches.

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The choice of roadside area type and safety zone presents two alternatives; individual driver
safety perspective and a cost-benefit efficiency perspective. Both are graded depending on
cost and intrusion from normal over major to huge as follows:

Costs and intrusion

VR driver perspective/efficiency Major Major Huge
70 driver perspective: B; > 7 m B; > 3 m C; < 3 m
efficiency: motorway always
wide two- lane A>9000 B>5000 with 7 m and 3 m
normal two- lane A>7000 B>4000 with 7 m and 3 m
90 driver perspective: A; > 9 m B; > 4,5 m C; < 4,5 m
efficiency: motorway always A and 9 m at new constructions
wide two- lane A>4 000; B>2500 with 9 m and 4 m
normal two- lane A>3 000; B>2 000 with 9 m and 4 m
110 driver perspective: A; > 10 m B; > 6 m C; < 6 m
efficiency: motorway always A and 10 m at new constructions
wide two- lane A>2 500; B>1 000 with 10 m and 6 m
normal two- lane A>2 000; B>1 000 with 10 m and 6 m

VU94 permits single and continuous fixed objects at the following distances within the safety
zone depending on traffic flow and speed limit. Only parts with slopes better than 1:3 are
measured. 1 m should be added to the table distances in outer bends with radii less than 1.5*
the minimum radius.

Minimum distance (m) to fixed object without safety fence, in brackets to rock
AADT-0 VR 70 VR90 VR110
single continuous single continuous single continuous
0-1000 2 3 3 4,5 4 6
1000-2000 2 3 3 4,5 5 6
2000-3000 2 3 3 4,5 6 10
3000-4000 2 3 4,5 9 6 10
4000-7000 3 4,5 4,5 9 6 10
≥7000 4,5 7 6 9 9 10

Maximum embankment heights and minimum distances to precipices (with heights 1 – 3 m)

or watercourses with depths > 1 m is as follows depending on speed limit, traffic flow and
grade:

AADT-0 VR 70 VR90 VR110

1:2 1:3 1:4 p/w 1:2 1:3 1:4 p/w 1:2 1:3 1:4 p/w
0-1000 4 12 15 3 1,5 6 8 5 X 3 5 7
1000-3000 3 10 13 5 X 4 7 7 X 2 4 8
3000-5000 2 8 11 6 X 3,5 6 8 X 2 3 9
≥ 5000 1 7 10 7 X 3 6 9 X 2 3 10

VU 94 guardrail lengths come to around 100 m at fixed object at lateral distances around 10
m (maximum safety zone at 110 kph). The basic principle, from the 60_ies, is to protect a
vehicle at a minimum encroachment angle due to speed limit. Guardrail terminal ends should
be withdrawn from the road.

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High flow roads have been designed and built with A or B-designs since the early part of the
90:ies. The bulk of existing roads have C-design with guardrails according to the old rules to
prevent dangerous run-offs at single objects and high embankments. Many rehabilitation
projects have been carried out during the last years to improve these roadside areas.

A new draft for roadside design and guardrails has been published based on experiences from
the last decade. This draft has excluded the B-design. The traditional guardrail rules for fixed
objects and high fills have been abandoned. Guardrail lengths, terminals and lateral
placements should be decided with the aim to close or minimize the risk to hit dangerous
objects. Two common cases are illustrated below; a fill to cross a local road and a transition
from cut to fill.

The transition solution is reasonably straightforward. Guardrails should be terminated in the

outer slope of the cut to avoid dangerous run-offs behind the safety fence.

The embankment case is more difficult to handle. The important design parameter is not the
length but the window-protection. The main design principle is shown below. The fence
height depends on the slope.

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Slänträcke Vägräcke Broräcke

> 20 m
1m
1:20 - 1:15
1:10

Alternativt radie

Side guardrails could often preferably be dislocated from the edge of the road, especially on
narrow and normal two- lane roads to get more space for vulnerable road-users and snow. It
also gives a more open impression.

Safety fences on 90 and 110 kph roads are normally design for capacity class N2 and bridge
fences for H2. Higher capacity is considered at precipices and water supply areas.

Alignment

Standard requirements on horizontal curves, sags and crests are given based on stopping sight
distances, maximum lateral accepted forces and super elevations. Maximum super elevation is
5,5 % which is the skid resistance at icy conditions. Normal camber is 2.5 %.

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VU94’s level-of-service criteria on space mean speed and tail-time also introduces
requirements on over-all sight distances and vertical and horizontal alignment.

Recommendations for sight distances, horizontal, vertical alignment and also level-of-service
criteria are presented below.

Sight distance requirements

Stopping sight distances are measured from eye-height 1.1 m to a theoretical object height of
0.2 m and an eye clearance of one minute. Lateral placements are normally 2 m from the edge
of the traffic area. Minimum values at level ground are due to costs and intrusions:

VR (km/h) Normal Major Huge

70 110 100 85
90 165 150 135
110 235 215 195

Values for different grades are given below:

Grade
V -8 % -6 % -4 % -2 % 0 % 2% 4% 6% 8%
30 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25
40 40 40 40 40 40 35 35 35 35
50 55 55 55 50 50 50 50 50 50
60 75 75 70 70 70 65 65 65 65
70 100 95 90 90 85 85 85 80 80
80 125 120 115 110 110 105 105 100 100
90 155 150 145 140 135 130 125 125 120
100 190 185 175 170 165 155 155 150 145
110 235 225 215 205 195 190 180 175 170
120 280 270 255 245 235 225 215 210 200
130 340 320 305 290 275 265 255 245 235

VU also gives sight distances for a number of typical overtaking situations. Design overtaking
sight distances are accelerating overtaking of a standard Swedish truck stated to be 500 to 900
m.

Frictions and lateral g-forces

Design friction and lateral g-force values are given below:

0,7 Friktionskoefficient

0,6

Total friktion
0,5

Bromsfriktion
0,4

0,3

0,2

Sidofriktion
0,1

0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140

Hastighet (km/h) FRIK . XLS

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Horizontal alignment

The minimum values for horizontal curve are as follows. Three values are normally given.
The highest should be used at average costs and intrusions for new constructions in “virgin”
environment. The lowest value could be used at very high costs or very severe intrusions.

Horizontal Costs and intrusion

VR (km/h) Super elevation (%) Normal Major Huge
70 5,5 300 250 200
90 5,5 500 450 400
110 5,5 800 700 600

Horizontal radii with camber are allowed at radii over 1800 to 5000 at 110 kph, 1000 to 3600
at 90 kph and 500 to 2200 at 70 kph.

Minimum horizontal radii for the design overtaking sight distances are for left hand and right
hand bends:

Overtaking Left hand bend

sight distance distance to outer slope
(m) 4,5 m 5m 6m
350 1500 1400 1300
450 2500 2300 2200
500 3100 2900 2700
700 6100 5700 5300
900 10100 9300 8700

Right hand bend

Overtaking road type and vehicle to be overtaken
sight distance 13 m – 16 m 9 m - car 9 m- bus 9 m - 16 m
500 5000 4500 7000 9000
700 8000 13000 17000
900 11000 18500 26000

Transitions curves – clothoides - are recommended when the resulting radius exceeds

VR Resulting radius 1/((1/R1 )-(1/R2 ))

(km/h) high standard low standard
70 400 350
90 650 500
110 900 750

The need for road widening could be judged by use of the following diagram. It gives the
additional space needed for a meeting situation between to design articulated trucks due to
radius and arc angle.

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Super elevation transitions are designed to be as short as possible for U0 – to + 2.5 %.

Minimum lengths are designed based on a maximum rotation speed criteria, e.g. on speed,
rotation axle (normal crown line) and carriageway width. They are normally located before
the start of the minimum radius.

Vertical alignment

The minimum values for crest radii on two- lane and one-lane roads are:

Crests – two- lane roads Costs and intrusion

VR Presumption Normal Major Huge
70 3000 2300 1800
90 7000 6000 5000
90 MW AADT-DIM<15000 6000 5000 4000
110 16000 13000 11000
110 dual carriage way 11000 10000 9000
110 MW AADT-DIM<15000 13000 11000 9000

Crests – one- lane roads

VR car/car truck/truck car/car truck/truck car/car truck/truck 1)
50 2500 1700 1500 1000 750 500
70 8000 5500 6000 4100 4300 3000
1) or bus

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Vertical radii are parables with the equation y=X2 /2R.

The minimum values for short arcs are:

Short arcs
VR Normal Major Huge
50 600 500 400
70 1000 850 750
90 1550 1400 1250
110 2200 2000 1900

The minimum values for sags are:

VR Normal Huge
50 1200 900
70 2500 1800
90 4500 3500
110 6500 5500

Maximum grades recommended are as follows:

Normal Major Huge

6% 7% 8%

6 % will create problems for trucks and buses during winter conditions.

Maximum resulting grades recommended are:

Normal Major Huge

8% 9% 10 %

Crawler lanes are recommended as a powerful tool to improve level-of-service and traffic
safety. A crawler lane diagnosis is performed by the use of the speed profile for the design
vehicle (dotted lines downhill performance, solid uphill).

A crawler lane should be considered if the speed profile is, see example below:

• between deceleration speed 65(60) and accelerating speed 60 is longer than 400 m
(500) at speed limit 90 kph (70)

This would also be the location with full width of a potential crawler lane.

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The alignment design principle for crawler lanes is to make the ordinary traffic lane
continuous as illustrated below.

The second step after the diagnosis is a cost-benefit-analysis of pros and cons, normally costs
of the crawler lane. The major advantage is the enhanced safety expressed as a reduction of
accident rate due to average grade and road type – narrow or wide two- lane.

Overall level-of-service criteria

VU94 has adopted the UK Highway Link Design principle, e.g. to avoid dilemma sight
distance zones at 90 kph around 300 to 450 m.

Normal two- lane roads have to provide sufficient overtaking possibilities to avoid too long
tail-times and too low space mean speeds. The following crude recommendations on sight
distances are given for flat terrain:

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Design hour flow Sight distance requirements

350 S ≥ 900m/2 km or S ≥ 500m/1 km
600 S ≥ 900m/1 km or S ≥ 500m/0.5 km
750 S ≥ 900m/0.5km or all S(x) ≥ 500m

Vertical profile improvements are normally not recommended. The reason is that they are
very costly and that the overall sight profile is worsened as illustrated below when a crest
curve is improved from 4500 to 14000 m.

Intersections

VU works with 3 intersection types:

• speed restricted intersections
• normal intersections; 3-legged, staggered or 4- legged at very low traffic flows (<100)
on the fourth leg
• major intersections
- roundabouts
- signalized intersections
- grade-separated
Major intersections are recommended based on two criteria
• accessibility for minor traffic with a design hour maximum degree of saturation of 05,
in rural environment
• reasonable safety level

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The safety criteria gives always the lowest accepted flow levels, see example below

Traffic signals are only accepted in urban or semi- urban environment with a maximum speed
limit of 70 kph. This means that the standard choice situation is between roundabout and
grade separation. There is no general advice on how to choose between these alternatives. A
cost-benefit procedure is given. Delays, fuel consumption, vehicle operating costs, emissions
and accident costs are estimated for the alternative intersection types. Severe motor vehicle
accidents per year for various intersection types and traffic flows at rural 70 kph conditions
below illustrates the method.

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5000 kiloSEK vehicle accident cost/year A 0,3

A-normal no measures
C mål ghost island left turn 4500 C mål 0,3
4-legged
ES signal
4000
D roundabout
F grade separation 3500
0.3 ratio of secondary road traffic
3000
A 0,1
A 0,3
2500 C mål 0,1

C mål 0,3 2000 A 0,05

3-legged C mål 0,05
ES 0,3; A 0,1 1500 ES 0,3
ES 0,1 ES 0,1
C mål 0,1; ES 0,05
A 0,05; F 0,3 1000 ES 0,05
C mål 0,05
F 0,1 70 D
70 D 500 F 0,3
F 0,1
0
-15000 -10000 -5000 0 5000 10000 15000
AADT - total incoming axle-pairs

The disadvantages of roundabouts are large delays and vehicle operating costs at uneven
traffic flows.

Roundabouts have been used in Sweden in semi- urban and urban conditions but their
popularity has grown rapidly during the last 10 years. Nowadays roundabout is a standard
solution also in rural conditions with reasonable flows on the secondary road. The inner radius
should be at least 10 m on state roads and the outer radius at least 17 m. Smaller roundabouts
are rather common in urban areas. The main principle in design is to create speed control for
the maximum vehicle track through the roundabout.

Normal intersections are often treated with left turn bays with road markings. This is
recommended if traffic flows exceeds values below. Another condition is that the primary
road left turn flow should be bigger than the crossing and left turn flow from the secondary
road.

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Kerbed islands are common in the northern part of Sweden. It is argued that ghost islands
don’t work on “snow tracks”.

Staggered intersections are preferred at traffic volumes of 100 at the fourth approach.

Right-left loops (Canary Island loops) are sometimes used especially at grades.

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A low cost measure on narrow two- lane roads is the “poor man solution”.

Grade-separated intersections on 2- lane roads are rather frequent. Ramp geometry varies as
well as approach design.

Dual carriageway roads should have deliberately low ramp alignment standard to avoid
motorway behaviour and to minimize intrusion.

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The base design of a rural motorway interchange is the diamond one. Secondary road
intersections should drop-solutions at high traffic flows.

Ls and Lp define sight distances for normal intersections. They depend on reference speed and
intrusions. Minimum values are valid for stop-regulation. Ls = 20 m could be considered for
yield control preferably with higher primary road sight distances.

Lp Ls
VR normal major huge Ls>20 normal huge
50 >110 80-110 <80 >5 3-5
70 >170 130-170 <130 195
90 >240 190-240 <190 275
110 >320 260-320 <260 355

Ls is measured from the closest edge for the major road and along the left side of the approach
lane. Lp is measured from the left approach lane of the secondary road and along edge of the
primary road.

Road markings

Narrow roads have broken edge lines in Sweden. Centre lines are introduced at paved widths
of 6,5 – 7 m.

Edge lane markings on normal 2- lane roads and 13 m roads with wide shoulders are normally
10 cm wide and centre line markings 0,15 m. The partition depends on speed limit and is
normally 1 m with 2 m gap. Partition for crown lines is normally 3 and 9 m.

Motorways, existing 13 m roads with wide lanes and 2+1 roads without vulnerable have
embossed 30 cm edge lines.

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General use of delineator posts was introduced in the 80’ies in Sweden. VU recommends
delineator posts on normal two- lane roads and wider cross-sections at 90 kph at flows higher
than AADT 1500.

The normal frequency is 50 m on two- lane roads and 100 m on motorways. Three posts are to
be visible.

Illumination

Rural state roads are normally not illuminated. There is a continuously on-going discussion
when to fund and run road lightening in small villages along state roads. “Spot” illumination
of intersections is very common in Sweden.

The present VU rules are very old (from the 60:ies without any changes) and states that
illumination should be implemented
cross-sections:
• on motorways with wide medians when AADT exceeds 40000
• on other motorways with wide when AADT exceeds 18000
• on wide two- lane and 2+1-roads with grade-separation when AADT exceeds 12000
• on dual carrigeway roads with separation of vulnerable road users when AADT
exceeds 14000
• on dual carrigeway roads with vulnerable road users when AADT exceeds 10000
• on normal two- lane roads with separation of vulnerable road users when AADT
exceeds 8000
• on normal two- lane roads with vulnerable road users when AADT exceeds 6000
• to connect illuminated faciltities closer than 0.5 km
• village through-roads with more than twenty premises
intersections:
• roundabouts and signalized intersections should be illuminated
• complicated grade-separated intersections
• pedestrian crossings
• bus stops with many passengers entering and leaving

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Wildlife measures

Wildlife accidents represent more than 50 percent of all police reported accidents in Sweden
but only some 10 out of 400 yearly killed people on state roads. Most high trafficked roads in
forest areas have wildlife fences.

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