What is meant by a "two-lane" road?

Two lanes total, one travelling in one direction, and one travelling in the opposite direction

In the US a "two-lane road" is one (single-vehicle-width) lane in each direction. (A "one-lane-road" is either a single one-way lane, or a single lane where vehicles must somehow take turns going opposite directions.)

Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 21:07

@HotLicks, a "one-lane road" can also refer to the "lane-and-a-half" dirt roads found in extremely rural area, where two vehicles can pass with care, but not at normal driving speed.

Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 21:46

@Mark - Yes. Usually such a road includes true one-lane segments, but at intervals it's wide enough to allow two (relatively narrow) vehicles to pass each other. This kind of falls into the "somehow take turns" mechanism I mentioned.

Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 21:49

Around here, "two lane" refers to the former and the latter would be a "twin lane", though I'm not sure if this is a Canadianism or not. We also have the verb "twinning" for the process of turning the former into the latter.

Commented Sep 2, 2015 at 7:56

4 Answers 4

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Two-lane expressway:

Two-lane road:

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Your second picture represents a:

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answered Sep 1, 2015 at 19:22 user66974 user66974

Josh, I wouldn't call your top picture a typical "2-lane road" - it's an expressway. An expressway has entrance and exit ramps. The lanes are usually divided by a median barrier or grass barrier and an expressway has a generally higher speed limit. A 2-lane road is a road with one lane in each direction, divided by a double yellow line, intersected with other streets controlled either by 2-or 4-way stop signs and/or traffic lights.

Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 20:10 @KristinaLopez - I added a picture and descriptions, hope it is clearer now. Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 20:16 Yeah, that completes it @Josh61! :-) Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 20:50

I guess we just call it a side when forced to. But we generally just use the route name and then bound E.g., the accident on US60 westbound is also affecting eastbound traffic. Or a car travelling west on US 60 crossed the median into the eastbound lanes resulting in a head-on collision with a 18-wheeler.

Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 21:43 @WS2--it spilled over into the northbound lanes. Commented Sep 1, 2015 at 22:15

According to the World Road Association-PIARC, an international standards body, a two-lane road is simply a

Road designed to permit two lanes of traffic to be accommodated side by side.

A search on the term shows that this usage is used by governments and construction companies in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Scotland. We may presume that at least in industry circles, the understanding of a two-lane road would be something like what the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which sets US national standards for road signs and markings, offers in this diagram:

Roads with more than two lanes, regardless of direction of traffic, are referred to generically as multi-lane roadways.

However, lanes should not be confused with carriageways or with directions of travel. Consider, for instance, this Wikimedia image of highway 401 in Ontario:

Traffic on the 401

There are sixteen to seventeen lanes of traffic, but these are divided up into six carriageways, three in each direction. So the confusion that a four-lane road refers to a road with four lanes in one direction may arise because it is hard to imagine such a large road on a single carriageway; almost certainly it would be at least a dual carriageway, with four lanes of traffic in each direction, but properly an eight-lane roadway.