Arterial highway

An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways or expressways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature restrictions on private access.

Though the design of arterial roads varies from country to country, city to city, and even within cities, they share a number of common design characteristics. For example, in many cities, arteries are arranged in circles (commonly referred to as ring roads) or in a grid. Many jurisdictions also classify arterial roads as either principal (major) or minor.

In traffic engineering hierarchy, an arterial road delivers traffic between collector roads and freeways. For new arterial roads, intersections are often reduced to increase traffic flow. In California, arterial roads are usually spaced every half mile, and have intersecting collector(s) and streets. Some arterial roads, characterized by a small fraction of intersections and driveways compared to most arterial roads, are also considered to be expressways in some countries and some states of the United States.

The Traffic Engineering Handbook describes "Arterials" as being either principal or minor. Both classes serve to carry longer-distance flows between important centers of activity. Arterials are laid out as the backbone of a traffic network and should be designed to afford the highest level of service, as is practical, as per the aforementioned "Traffic Engineering Handbook".

The construction and development of arterial roads is achieved through two methods. By far the most common is the upgrading of an existing right-of-way during subdivision development. When existing structures prohibit the widening of an existing road however, bypasses are often constructed. Because of the placement and general continuity of arterial road corridors, sewers, water mains, conduits and other infrastructure are placed beneath or beside the roadbed.

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