How wide is a small town city street in O scale?

Travel lanes are about 10-12 feet wide, or 2-1/2” - 3” in O gauge. Parking spaces are about 8 feet wide, or 2” in O gauge. 

To add to LIONEL GRANDPA's excellent practical dimensions, I will offer you the opinion, speaking to your imagination, that, aesthetically, one must decide if the street is to have parking lanes or not, and if parking is to be feathered on one or both sides of the street. I have found myself being happy with streets with parking on one side, usually the side most easily viewed from the aisle.

For example:

one-side parking...

No-side parking...

FrankM

I went for as wide I could get in the space I had, here is two versions in the same space.

Old photos, a Rolling Mill is now there no streets at all!

Roo.

I do it by placing two of my automobiles down side by side then give a little more. If you have tractor trailers put two of them down to give you an idea how wide, if your going to have parking put another car down to give you the withe for that also.  

ROO, I especially like your street scene. It matches the image in my mind for my layout. After switches are wired, the roads are going in. 

C&Osteam posted:

ROO, I especially like your street scene. It matches the image in my mind for my layout. After switches are wired, the roads are going in. 

No worries mate.

Hope to see a photo one day. Roo.

Take a tape measure and go measure the street you want to model.    My guess is if 2 lane, 8-10 ft per lane and if there is parallel parking on both sides and another 8-10 ft per side.    So 2 lanes with parallel parking - 32-40 feet.     I have seen streets in small towns out west in flat country with angle parking that are probably 60-70 feet wide.

So it kinda depends on the area and age.     Then you can selectively compress, since space on a model is limited.   

O scale is 1/4 inch to the foot - 32 feet is 32 times 1/4 or 8 inches.

Don’t forget you have to fudge it a little bit if you’re using 1:43 vehicles. They’ll look even bigger on a narrow street, so err on the wider side of dimensions. If you’ve got a fleet of 1:50 cars, you’re good to go at scale dimensions 

Just to give you an idea, I did 3in's for the roads (12Ft wide scale)  1.5 inches for the Sidewalks (6ft scale) and I did 2.5 inch wide parking spots (10ft)

This was the guide I used.

https://nacto.org/publication/...elements/lane-width/

I found a simple scale calculator that I put on my phone. Make doing the calcs really easy. All above advice is sound and not repeated here. 

rtraincollector posted:

I do it by placing two of my automobiles down side by side then give a little more. If you have tractor trailers put two of them down to give you an idea how wide, if your going to have parking put another car down to give you the withe for that also.  

This is what I'll be doing.  And since my layout is a bit more toy like, all the rubber wheeled vehicles will be LEGO, so I just found my widest LEGO truck and doubled it for a 2 lane and tripled it for parallel parking on the building side of the road.

I am not a civil engineer nor a city planner, but after investigating traffic collisions for about the first six years of my career, I can assure you that city street width depend on the era they were paved, if paved.  BUT, Lionel Grandpa is right on the money for roads paved in the past 30 years.

Most modern road building is done using the dimensions Lionel Grandpa listed: 10ft width (the widest most states permit for standard vehicles such as semi trucks, anything wider now requires flag cars and wide load permits and they must designate their route of travel).  To allow for meeting oncoming traffic and to avoid striking adjacent highway signs (curves, speed limits, stop signs and such) add one foot to each side of the 10ft and that becomes one lane.  Double and you have a two way traffic street.  Turn lanes are the same 12ft width...likewise 4 lane roadways.

HOWEVER!!!!  Roadways with paved gutters and curbs you should add an additional 2 feet.  Thus a typical 2 lane residential street in a neighborhood with paved street that also has paved gutter and curb measures 26ft wide; 4 lane roads are typically 50 to 52ft wide...(extra space for lane clearance).

For all practical purposes, since there will not be bicyclist or pedestrians at risk of life and limb without that extra couple of feet, feel comfortable allowing 10ft for a single lane in O scale.

As for lane lines, depending on the wealth of your O scale community, they may elect to only stripe or line roadways that are thru streets or state or US highways.  It is rare for a residential neighborhood street to have lane lines.

Having been a Medicare shuttle driver in rural Oklahoma, I can assure you that many small communities are barely 16ft wide asphalt with no lane lines, and that is pretty much true of rural county roads...including gravel roads in the very rural areas.

So...there is a prototype for every option you might elect to use on your railroad.

"Now if you don't mind and even if you do mind, I asked for your insurance verification and your operators license and the wide load permit...just stay in the truck...I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Tony Wright, along with his excellent measurements and perspectives, IMO, mentioned...

unpaved roads..

and their dimensions. Here is a favorite of mine, Brake Hill Road, near Homer and Cortland, NY, which has my vehicle pulled to the side of it, temporarily parked, with a drainage ditch directly next to the wheels on the right.. This may afford you some idea of the width of such places, since you likely know that approximate width of such SUV's, if that helps...

...as well as a photo of the main street of Homer, NY, which may help you in your calculations. The street allows parking on both sides, and is marked, as you can see.

FrankM

I am modeling a small rural Kansas town in the East Central Kansas Coal Fields of the late 1940s to early 1950s. This town is not very big with likely only a handful of business buildings on its primary street and it will likely be a state or county highway too. So the measurements offered by Lionel Grandpa will work, yes?

For the layout using 1/43 cars, I'd go with 6" total width.  If you have the room, go wider.  1 3/4" for parking should be good.

For late 40s road markings, there is a photo of the Blue Ridge Parkway, VA, from Dec 18, 1948, that shows the road has a solid white line (broken at intersections) and no edge (side) markings.  Edge markings slow to be accepted, but were around in late 40s.

Higher contrast markings were used during WWII due to war blackout conditions, usually white since chromium pigment needed for yellow was needed to support war requirements.  White was more prevalent.

Many rural areas had marking in town but still not on rural roads.

1948 or so some states went to white except for no passing zones where yellow (double or single) was used.  Texas actually recommended no edge markings.

1948 B&W photos from Texas show a dark solid center line?

Hardest part for my late 40s layout is that red for stop signs did not become common until the early 50s.  Was yellow prior to that.  Have to paint my own.

So, do a white solid centerline with no edge markings in town and you should be good.  For me, I'd go with whatever width fit best and looks right to me.

@BradFish1 posted:

How wide in inches should a small town downtown street be in O scale?

Measure the width of any street you like.  Divide that number by 48 inches and you will have what your model streets may be.  John