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As one who is a professional engineer with 20 years in highway design, here's my twp cents. UNtil the 1950's the minimum width for a travel lane ( a lane whre autos move) was 9 feet. As vehicles became larger and faster, this has grown to the current standard of 12 feet, although 10 feet is a minimum for a travel lane. Right of way widths depend on the classification of the street. Local streets in urban areas often have right of way widths of 2 rods (33 feet), three rods (47.5 feet), or an "odd" number like 45 or sometimes 60 feet. Collector roads (roads that intersect local streets and connect to major arterial streets) are generally in the area of 60 to 90 feet. Arterial streets (streets that move large amounts of traffic) are usually more than two lanes and are often divided. The rights of way are anywhere from 90 to 120 feet. INterstate and state highways built to interstate standards generally have rights of way in the area of 300 feet. Most roads built after 1960 have a minimum lane width of 12 feet for traffic, and if parking is desired the parking lane is 6 to 8 feet. In urban areas, curb and gutter is used to direct rainfall and stop erosion. The gutter is 2 feet wide and the curb is 6 inches wide. A typical urban (city) two lane street is therefore 12 + 12 + 2 + 2 or 28 feet wide from the face of curb to the opposite face of curb. Median widths for multi-lane highways range from 14 to 24 feet in urban areas. Sidewalks are generally 5 feet wide, unless there is a large amount of pedestrian traffic ( as in downtown areas of large cities) then the walks are larger ( I've seen up to 12 feet). Sometimes there is a grass strip between the sidewalk and the street (terrace). This distance is anywhere from 4feet depending on the available right of way. I should note that the sidewalks are generally placed 1 - 2 feet from the right of way line. Rural roads generlaly require more right of way to accomodate shoulders and ditches for drainaige. The lane widths, however, remain at the modern (post 1960) standard of 12 feet. Since modelling a road to exact scale requires alot of room ( more than we usually want to give on a layout) I selectively compress the road width. I model in N Scale and use AMI instant roadbed for asphalt two lane roads. The material is roughly 20 scale feet wide, and I use thin yellow tape for a centerline. Strip styrene can be used for a curb and for sidewalks. Hope this helped you in some way.
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