weghelft

Weghelft is a Dutch term that roughly translates to "half of a road." In traffic terminology it is used to refer to one side of a divided carriageway or to the portion of a road that is allocated for traffic in a particular direction or for a specific class of users. The word combines weg (road) with helft (half), reflecting its geometric notion as one half of a road structure that is divided by a median, central line, or barrier.

In practice, weghelft commonly appears in technical, regulatory, or planning documents rather than in everyday speech. It is typically associated with the concept of a divided roadway where the two weghelften represent the two directions of travel or two distinct travel corridors. The exact interpretation can vary by jurisdiction and by the historical period of the text, which means that precise definitions are not always uniform across sources.

Because the term is relatively specialized, many Dutch sources prefer more specific terms such as rijbaan (traffic lane), rijstrook (lane), or verkeerstoegang when describing particular parts of a road. Weghelft may therefore be encountered primarily in engineering plans, road design guidelines, or regional regulations. In contemporary usage, it is often used as a generic descriptor rather than a precise legal category, with emphasis placed on the actual lane markings and traffic directions that define each half of the road.