A
frontage road (also
access road,
feeder,
service drive,
service road,
outer road, and
surface road, although the later term can also refer to other roadways that are not necessarily frontage roads) is a non-limited access road running
parallelParallelism is a term in geometry and in everyday life that refers to a property in Euclidean space of two or more lines or planes, or a combination of these. The existence and properties of parallel lines are the basis of Euclid's parallel postulate. Two lines in a plane that do not intersect or...
to a higher-speed road, usually a
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
, and feeding it at appropriate points of access (
interchangesIn the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
). In many cases, the frontage road is a former alignment of a road already in existence when the limited-access road was built. In other cases they may be built prior to construction of the limited-access road. In urban areas, frontage roads are frequently
one-wayA one-way street is a street on which vehicles should only move in one direction. On this type of street a sign is posted showing which direction the vehicles can move in: commonly an upward arrow, or on a T junction where the main road is one-way, an arrow to the left or right...
roads when they exist on both sides of a highway. In more rural ones, such roads are typically two-way.
Frontage roads provide access to homes and businesses which would be cut off by a limited access road and connect these locations with roads which have direct access to the main roadway. Frontage roads give indirect access to abutting property along a
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
, either preventing the
commercialCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
disruption of an
urban areaAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
that the freeway traverses or allowing commercial development of abutting
propertyProperty is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy his or her property, and/or to exclude others from...
. At times, they add to the cost of building an expressway due to costs of land acquisition and the costs of paving and maintenance. However, the benefits of development nearby
real estateReal estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location.
"Real estate" The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin...
can more than offset the cost of building the frontage roads. Furthermore, a frontage road may be a part of an older
highwayA highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade separated motorway. In English and U.S...
, so the expense of building a frontage road may be slight. And finally, the cost to purchase access rights from adjacent property may exceed the costs to build frontage roads. Conversely, the existence of a frontage road can increase traffic on the main road and be a catalyst for development; hence there is sometimes an explicit decision made to not build a frontage road.
A
backage road is a similar concept, but lies on the other side of the land parcels that abut the frontage road. It serves mainly to provide access to those parcels without using the frontage road.
Collector-express
The successor to the concept of service/frontage roads in urban freeways is the
collector-express system, which is designed to handle closely spaced interchange ramps without disrupting through traffic. Unlike service roads, the collector lanes are typically high-speed full controlled-access lanes, conforming to freeway requirements. The collector lanes may also be known as a
collector/distributor roadA collector/distributor road, often abbreviated as C/D road, is a one-way road next to a freeway that is used for some or all of the ramps that would otherwise merge into or split from the main lanes of the freeway. It is similar to a frontage road, and related to the more complex Express-collector...
and slip ramps provide access to and from the express/mainline lanes. Frontage roads may feed into and from collector/distributor roads near some interchanges.
Argentina
In
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
, especially around
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, frontage roads can be found next to freeways. Examples include
Avenida General PazAvenida General Paz is a beltway freeway surrounding the city of Buenos Aires. Roughly following the boundary between the city and Buenos Aires Province, it is one of the few motorways in Argentina that is toll-free...
, and
Ruta 9National Route 9 is a major road in Argentina, which runs from the center-east to the northwest of the country, crossing the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy...
coming into Buenos Aires.
Ontario
The only freeway with a significant remaining network of service roads is the
Queen Elizabeth WayThe Queen Elizabeth Way is a 400-Series freeway in Ontario, Canada. It links Buffalo, New York, USA and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto and its western suburbs. The freeway starts at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ontario and continues for 139 kilometres through Niagara Falls, St...
(QEW). However, most of the slip ramps between
St. CatharinesSt. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...
and
MississaugaMississauga , incorporated in 1974, is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and part of the Greater Toronto Area. With a population of 668,549 as of the 2006 census, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each...
were removed during major reconstruction in the 1970s and 1990s. Service roads are no longer able to directly access the QEW; they have been rerouted to intersections with other major roads which have interchanges with the QEW. Nonetheless, the service roads are positioned too close to the QEW to easily widen the freeway unless all the private properties along the service road are bought out. This would be unlikely in the current political environment.
The only remaining slip ramps connecting to service roads are on the QEW running through
St. CatharinesSt. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...
. These dangerous low-standard ramps (due to lack of acceleration/de-acceleration lanes) are due to be replaced in a planned extensive reconstruction of the QEW that is currently underway. Similar service roads and slip ramps exist along
Highway 401The King's Highway 401 is a highway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world. In fact, the segment of Highway 401 passing through Toronto has the distinction of being North America's...
through
OshawaOshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe...
, but like through St. Catharines, these are also in the process of being replaced with modern ramps.
Highway 427The King's Highway 427 is a 400-Series Highway in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada, that runs from immediately south of the Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway interchange in Toronto to Highway 7 in Vaughan...
had its service roads replaced with a collector-express system in the 1970s. However, it has several RIRO access onramps and offramps to serve residential traffic in addition to its standard
parclo interchangeThe parclo interchange is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The parclo interchange was developed by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation as a replacement for the cloverleaf on 400-Series Highways, removing the dangerous weaving patterns and allowing for more acceleration and...
s with major
arterialsAn arterial road is a moderate or high-capacity road which is immediately below a highway level of service. Much like a biological artery, an arterial road carries large volumes of traffic between areas in urban centres...
.
List of Service Roads on the QEW:
- series of broken sections from Cawthra Road in Mississauga to the Garden City Skyway
The Garden City Skyway is a major high-level bridge located in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, that allows the Queen Elizabeth Way to cross the Welland Canal without the interruption of a lift bridge. Six lanes of traffic are carried across the bridge, which is 3.5 miles ...
in St. Catharines.
List of Service Roads on the 403:
- North Service Road at QEW/407 junction to Waterdown Rd, Burlington
- Service Service Road at Guelph Line, Burlington
List of RIRO on the 427:
- Gibbs Road onto North 427
- Eva Road onto/off South 427
- Holiday Drive onto/off South 427
- Eringate Drive onto/off South 427
- Vahalla Inn Road onto North 427
From Toronto east to the
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
-
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
border,
Highway 2 (Ontario)Highway 2 was the major east-west provincial highway in Southern Ontario, running from Windsor in the west to the Quebec boundary near Lancaster in the east and joining together the towns and cities of the western two-thirds of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor within the Canadian province of Ontario...
runs almost parallel to
Highway 401 (Ontario)The King's Highway 401 is a highway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world. In fact, the segment of Highway 401 passing through Toronto has the distinction of being North America's...
. Lakeshore Boulevard in Toronto runs parallel with the Gardiner Expressway.
People's Republic of China
In the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
mainlandMainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which are under the jurisdiction of the PRC but run on different economic and...
, roads running next to
expresswaysThe Expressway Network of the People's Republic of China is one of the longest in the world. The network is also known as National Trunk Highway System . The total length of China's expressways is 60,300 km at the end of 2008, the world's second longest only after the United States and...
, taking outgoing traffic and feeding incoming traffic, are called either
service roads or
auxiliary roads (
fudao locally). Where expressways cross larger urban areas, such frontage roads may run next to the expressway itself. Much of the Beijing portion of the
Jingkai ExpresswayThe Jingkai Expressway is an expressway in China which links Beijing to Kaifeng. At present, it is approximately 40 km in length in the Beijing section....
, for example, has, in fact,
China National Highway 106China National Highway 106 is a road from Beijing to Guangzhou.It leaves Beijing at Yuquanying and heads to Gu'an, Bazhou , Kaifeng , Ezhou , and eventually Guangzhou on the south China coast....
acting as a split-direction frontage road.
Hong Kong
Frontage roads exist both in city and along major expressways between new towns.
Gloucester RoadRoad:* Gloucester Road, London* Gloucester Road tube station* Gloucester Road, Hong Kong* Gloucester Road, Bristol A38 through Horfield, Bristol...
has frontage road running parallel of it from east to west. Cheung Tung Road serves as the frontage road for North Lantau Highway, Hiram's Highway for New Hiram's Highway, and Tai Wo Service Road West and Tai Wo Service Road East for Fanling Highway. Castle Peak Road serves the purpose as a frontage road of Tuen Mun Road to some extent.
Michigan
Frontage roads are also common in
Metro DetroitThe Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is the metropolitan area located in Southeast Michigan centered on the city of Detroit. As the home of the "Big Three" American automakers , it is the world's traditional automotive center and a key pillar of the U.S...
, where they are usually referred to as "service drives." As in Texas, they typically run one way with frequent slip ramps to and from the limited access roadway, with
Texas U-turnA Texas U-turn, or Texas Turnaround, is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn into the opposite frontage road without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade...
s at or near many intersections. Unlike Texas, there is usually little commercial development situated along the frontage road itself (see
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=42.408138,-83.218442&spn=0.004484,0.005268&t=k for one example); the road serves to provide access to the freeway from existing residential streets and commercial surface thoroughfares. Also unlike in many locales in urban Texas, where an exit ramp may actually precede the entrance ramp for the previous interchange to facilitate access to businesses situated directly on the frontage road (in effect, the two interchanges overlap along the frontage road), Michigan slip ramps to and from frontage roads are generally positioned as they normally would be in the absence of the frontage road. Motorists entering and exiting the freeway are not sharing the frontage road simultaneously to as large a degree, reducing weaving. Access to the frontage road between exits is provided by turnarounds and frequent bridging, generally every 1/2 mile, between exits.
Michigan left hand turnsA Michigan left, sometimes known as a Michigan Turn, median U-turn, median U-turn crossover, or Boulevard Turnaround, is an automobile traffic maneuver in which a combination of a U-turn and a right turn or a right turn and a unidirectional U-turn replace a prohibited left turn...
are also quite common at surface street-frontage road intersections, with dedicated turnaround lanes (similar to the Texas U-turn) built over the freeway on separate bridges approximately 100 meters from the main intersection and bridging.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=42.487811,-83.241348&spn=0.008956,0.010536&t=k&om=1
With the exceptions of Interstate 275 and the freeway portion of
M-53M-53 is a gateway route to The Thumb region of the U.S. state of Michigan, carrying vacationers to the many cottages and resorts located on Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron in the vicinity of Caseville and Port Austin. This highway is also used to transport agricultural and manufactured products from the...
, every Metro Detroit freeway has a frontage road along it for at least a portion of its length. Several other freeways outside Metro Detroit use these as well.
There are no other Michigan frontage roads running more than one mile in length outside of the Metro Detroit area. New freeway construction in Michigan has not included frontage roads since the completion of
Interstate 696Interstate 696 is an intrastate Interstate Highway entirely within the U.S. state of Michigan. I-696 is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway, named for a prominent figure in early automobile factory labor union activity. I-696 is a spur route, partially circling the city of Detroit, but...
, most of which was constructed along the rights of way of major surface arteries, in 1989.
Texas
Most Texas
freewayA freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and...
s have frontage roads on both sides. In urban and suburban areas, the traffic typically travels one-way only in the direction of the neighboring main lanes. Most other areas have two-way traffic, but as an area urbanizes the frontage road is often converted to one-way traffic. Over 80% of Houston freeways have frontage roads, which locals typically call feeders. Many frontage roads in urban and suburban areas of Texas have the convenience of
Texas U-turnA Texas U-turn, or Texas Turnaround, is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn into the opposite frontage road without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade...
s, which allow drivers to avoid being stopped by traffic lights when making a U-turn.
Frontage roads are often built as part of a multi-phase plan to construct new limited access highways. Therefore, they initially serve as a highway with access to local business before the freeway is constructed several years later. Even after the completion of the new freeway, frontage roads serve as a major thoroughfare for local activity, such as with the Katy Freeway project in
Greater HoustonHouston–Sugar Land–Baytown is a 10-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas...
http://www.katyfreeway.org/mis.html. In several cases, a long range plan has called for a future freeway, but the design is either changed or the project canceled before completion.
Entering and exiting from access roads can be very confusing to drivers unfamiliar with the system. Signaling is very important not just for the drivers behind, but also for oncoming traffic in areas where the access road is two-way. In fact, an interesting driving custom has developed in areas with two-way frontage roads. Typically, drivers traveling on the frontage road moving in the same direction as the adjacent freeway traffic will use their left turn signal when entering the on-ramp. In Texas, drivers on a frontage road must yield to traffic entering an on-ramp, so oncoming traffic must stop to allow vehicles to cross in front of them to enter the on-ramp. As a courtesy, many drivers on a two-way frontage road who are not entering the freeway will switch on their
right turn signal as they approach an on-ramp to indicate that they are staying on the frontage road and that oncoming motorists therefore needn't slow down or stop to yield to them.
Nicknames for frontage roads vary within the state of Texas. In Houston and
East TexasEast Texas is a distinct geographic and ecological area in the U.S. state of Texas.According to the Handbook of Texas, the East Texas area "may be separated from the rest of Texas roughly by a line extending from the Red River in north central Lamar County southwestward to east central Limestone...
they are called feeders. Dallas and
Fort WorthFort Worth is the seventeenth-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city within the state of Texas. Located in and a cultural gateway into the American West, the city covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, and Denton counties, serving as the county seat for Tarrant...
residents call their frontage roads "service roads" or "access roads", and "access roads" is the predominant term used in
San AntonioSan Antonio is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest city in the United States. The city is characteristic of other Southwest urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city. It was the fourth-fastest growing...
.
El PasoEl Paso is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and part of the American Southwest. According to the United States Census Bureau's 2006 population estimates, the city had a population of 606,913. It is the sixth-largest city in Texas and the 22nd-largest city in...
residents call their frontage roads "gateways." In
AustinAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 15th-largest in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation...
, however, they use the state's official term of "frontage roads".
In 2002, the
Texas Department of TransportationThe Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas. Its stated mission is to "work cooperatively to provide safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state...
proposed to discontinue building frontage roads on new freeways, citing studies that suggest frontage roads increase congestion. However, this proposal was widely ridiculed and criticized and was dropped later the same year.
The Stemmons Freeway in
DallasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
illustrates the practicability of the frontage road: the real estate developer John Stemmons offered free land to the Texas Highway commission in which to build a freeway (
Interstate 35EInterstate 35E , an Interstate Highway, is the eastern half of Interstate 35 where it splits to serve different cities in Texas. I-35 splits into two branch routes, I-35W and I-35E at Hillsboro. I-35E runs north for , maintaining I-35's sequence of exit numbers...
) on the condition that the
stateThe Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas. Its stated mission is to "work cooperatively to provide safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state...
build the freeway with frontage roads that would give access to undeveloped
propertyProperty is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy his or her property, and/or to exclude others from...
until then of slight value that he owned along the freeway corridor. The state was able to reduce its costs (largely the cost of land acquisition) of building the freeway and did not need to acquire and demolish developed property; in return the developer profited handsomely from lucrative development along the freeway.
San AntonioSan Antonio is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest city in the United States. The city is characteristic of other Southwest urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city. It was the fourth-fastest growing...
developer Charles Martin Wender used the same tactic for his Westover Hills development, offering free land through the middle of his propery for SH 151 as well as paying half the costs for the initial frontage road construction. Following Wender's lead, several neighboring landowners also donated right-of-way for the route.
The Carolinas
Frontage roads are common on interstate highways in
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
and
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
. Some of these road have houses facing the highways which they parallel. They may also have highway services, as most of them are located near
interchangesIn the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
. Most frontage roads in the Carolinas do not have ramps leading to and from their respective highways; rather, as mentioned before, most are located near interchanges, which allows people to exit the highway and go around to the frontage road if needed.