Type of Road Component #
The built-in road width element consists of the default road width element in MiTS. It cannot be added or removed.
Custom road width element is a new feature for the user to add additional elements to the road margins. It is recommended to be used for the auxiliary elements such as bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, parking lines, etc. See this blogpost for usage.
What are Core Road Elements? #
They are median, carriageway and shoulder, and are defined only in Built-In Element. You can’t define those core road elements via the custom element editor because of SuperElevation.
Effect of Superelevation on Core Road Elements #
The superelevation will affect the cross slope of the median, carriageway and shoulder, AKA all the Core Road Elements. It makes the cross slope vary at the curves on the horizontal plan.
However, if these 3 elements were designed using the custom road width element, their cross slope would still follow the value that has been set in the project settings no matter if there is a curve or not. This will lead to accidents if the car is driven fast because there is no superelevation to compensate for the continued forward motion and centrifugal force on a curve. So it is not recommended that you define your own carriageway as a Custom Road Width Element editor; you can only customize existing carriageways via the Built-In Road Width Element editor.
You can see these example project files, where one is using a built-in road width element and another one is using a custom road width element for the median, carriageway and shoulder.
Project File:
The image below is the comparison of the two road width element editors from one of the cross-sections of the road.
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