Apparently, a critique of hierarchical, tree-like city design (particularly conventional suburban street layouts)

Keywords: architecture, urban design, urban form, streets, street design

Keywords: urban design, streets, street design, traffic calming

Keywords: streets, urban design, street design

Keywords: streets, urban planning, street design

Keywords: streets, history, urban politics, street design, roadspace reallocation, zoning

Keywords: urban planning, streets, street design, pedestrian planning

The risk perception and behavior of elderly pedestrians and cyclists in cities in Denmark have been revealed by means of a questionnaire administered to both elderly people aged 70 and above and a control group aged 40-49, and interviews with some of the elderly respondents. The elderly appreciate pedestrian crossings, signalized intersections and cycle paths significantly more than the control group does. To a larger extent they feel that it is dangerous to cross the road where these facilities are missing. Furthermore, the elderly pedestrians find the presence of a sidewalk very important on their route whereas the control group more often chooses the fastest route. Differences within the group of elderly respondents can be related to differences in health and physical abilities rather that to differences in age. Generally, the elderly road users state a more cautious behavior in specific traffic situations than the control group. Thus, a significantly higher proportion of the elderly than the control group choose to walk up to a pedestrian crossing if they can see one and stop the bicycle before turning left, and a significantly lower proportion of the elderly choose to cross at a red light, ride on the sidewalk and ride in the opposite direction on the cycle path.

Keywords: pedestrian planning, bicycle planning, streets

Keywords: transport planning, streets, roadspace reallocation

Reallocating roadspace from general traffic, to improve conditions for pedestrians or cyclists or buses or on-street light rail or other high-occupancy vehicles, is often predicted to cause major traffic problems on neighbouring streets. This paper reports on two phases of research, resulting in the examination of over 70 case studies of roadspace reallocation from eleven countries, and the collation of opinions from over 200 transport professionals worldwide. The findings suggest that predictions of traffic problems are often unnecessarily alarmist, and that, given appropriate local circumstances, significant reductions in overall traffic levels can occur, with people making a far wider range of behavioural responses than has traditionally been assumed. Follow-up work has also highlighted the importance of managing how schemes are perceived by the public and reported in the media, with various lessons for avoiding problems. Finally, the findings highlight that well-designed schemes to reallocate roadspace can often contribute to a multiplicity of different policy aims and objectives.

Keywords: transport planning, streets, roadspace reallocation

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets, street design, new urbanism

There is a critical need for a new paradigm of growth on undeveloped sites - one that complements urban infill and revitalization. The alternative transportation network proposed here calls for a new hierarchy of arterials and boulevards that allow for through traffic without always by-passing commercial centers - a road network that reinforces access to walkable neighborhoods and urban town centers without cutting them off from local pedestrian movement. A plan for new growth areas around Chicago proposes 3 types of major roads to replace the standard arterial grid: transit boulevards, throughways, and arterials. The transit boulevards combine the capacity of a major arterial with the intimacy of local frontage roads and the pedestrian orientation that comes with the transit system. Local arterials are multi-lane facilities that transition into a couplet of main streets at the village centers.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets, street design, new urbanism

Keywords: bicycle planning, streets, urban design

Keywords: streets, street design

Not too relevant from a sustainable transportation perspective. The bulk of the paper addresses the mechanics of parking management (metering technology, loading regulations, etc.) rather than the bigger issues of choosing appropriate prices, balancing on-street and off-street parking, encouraging quick turnover short-term parking, or residential permit systems.

Keywords: parking, streets

This is a very good idea for streets with heavy bus traffic. Following the VACC's recommendation, Vancouver has implemented this on downtown Burrard St.

Keywords: bicycle planning, transit, streets, pavement marking

The ADONIS project was commissioned by the European Commission to a Consortium comprising 7 partners as part of the Fourth Framework Programme. Original title of the project is: Analysis and Development Of New Insight into Substitution of short car trips by cycling and walking (ADONIS).

The ADONIS project was partly funded by the EU - DG VII Transport RTD Programme, Urban Sector and was co-financed by Danish Transport Council, Danish Ministry of Transport, Municipality of Barcelona, Catalan Institute of Road safety, SAINCO TRAFICO S.A., Swedish Transport & Communications Research Board and Belgian Institute for Traffic Safety.

Interesting ideas: C10 (New types of designs for bus stops) describes some interesting ways of designing bus stops to reduce conflicts with cyclists. In one of the options, the bicycle lane is against the curb, but the bus does not pull into the curb to let passengers off. Instead, it stops in its lane, and passengers walk across the bicycle lane. To help them, zebra crossings are marked across the bicycle lane at the bus doors. I think this design is only needed because buses in Denmark are not allowed to pull up to the curb when there is a bicycle lane. C17a-b (Two-way bicycle traffic in one-way streets in Belgium and the Netherlands) gives some interesting background on the effectiveness of this desirable tactic in those countries, and includes some useful signs used there. C18 (two-way traffic on cycle tracks) makes the interesting point that two-way tracks can be good solutions when there are many T juntions on one side of the street, but few on the other (e.g., next to rail tracks or water).

The crossings section is excellent: all of C19-C32 are worth reading. These ideas are first-rate, and few of them have been adopted in North America, from what I've seen. These are some of the biggest issues that I have with current design on this continent. I liked their use of the term “cycle crossing” where the bike lane/path is marked through an intersection.

The parking section (C33-C38) isn't too revolutionary. There are a few interesting details of free public bicycle programmes, and company bicycle programmes in C40-C42. The rest of the policy section (C39-C44) was unexciting, and likewise for the education section (C45-C52).

The organisation section had some interesting ideas. C53 discusses bicycles on public transport (mainly commuter rail routes) in Copenhagen. C56 (“BikeBusters”) describes a programme where committed car drivers were given a free bike, free bus tickets for a year, and asked to fill in trip diaries and track their weight and cholesterol. Others describe bike-to-school programmes, bicycle courier companies, and priority snow cleaning.

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, pavement colouring, pavement marking, streets

Keywords: streets, transport planning

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets

Keywords: prioritisation, streets, bicycle collisions

Keywords: traffic calming, streets

This paper describes a survey that was conducted with 21 U.S. jurisdictions concerning their traffic calming practices. The findings are compared to previous studies to demonstrate how policies and practices have evolved as the field has matured. The jurisdictions were surveyed regarding traffic calming program staffing, budgets, controversies and litigation. Process issues such as project initiation, prioritization/resource allocation, public approval, road user needs and technical issues such as street eligibility were also included. Finding showed significant changes in the mainstreaming of programs within transportation or public works departments, less public controversy surrounding programs, greater reliance on private financing of construction, more public involvement in planning through neighborhood traffic committees, limited expansion of eligibility beyond local streets to collectors and arterials, and expansion of individual agency toolboxes to include a greater range of speed control measures.

I was surprised by the tiny amount of money devoted to traffic calming in the jurisdictions they surveyed: only $80,000 total in Portland, with other funds coming from residents or the general public works department fund. They note that most projects are resident-initiated, rather than being identified by staff. Most cities prioritize projects using reasonable criteria: speed, volume, collisions, proximity to schools/hospitals/parks, ped/bike volumes, density, street width, and sidewalks are sometimes used. Some take a first come, first serve approach, and Sacramento even uses a lottery.

Keywords: traffic calming, streets, prioritisation

Keywords: traffic calming, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, streets, traffic controls

Discusses some of the history of street design standards, and problems with the typical current approach, where freeway design standards are applied to urban street design. Emphasis on design speed, curve radii, and design process. Good refs: Mar02.

Keywords: streets, urban design, street design

Keywords: streets, transport planning

Keywords: transport planning, streets

Keywords: streets, transport planning

Keywords: urban planning, urban design, transport planning, street design, streets

Keywords: streets, pedestrian planning, bicycle planning, canada, street design, urban design, prioritisation

Some interesting notes about site design. It's a refreshingly concrete comparison of urban and suburban neighbourhood design. I don't think I'd realised just how sparse some American street networks are until I saw the maps of Mariner, Seattle... I can't find any Canadian suburb that empty. Not that it makes Canadian suburbs any more walkable-our suburban pattern may be dense, but it's still extremely disconnected.

The scale of suburban blocks was also surprising: 300m-400m per side, on average, compared to 90m-122m for urban blocks. The rule of thumb is that people won't walk more than 400m to a bus stop-one block in the suburbs. Not to mention the perceptual bleakness of walking forever in these empty spaces...

I found the comments here about pedestrian traffic to different sized commercial centres interesting. They found that in suburban neighbourhoods, pedestrians preferred medium-sized centres over other sizes. I wonder what the reasons are-perhaps the auto-favouring design features around large suburban centres, or the barrier caused by their colossal parking lots?

I really liked the discussions on micro design. While many reports talk about illegal jaywalking, they at least note that in many suburban areas, the distance between legal crossings is usually 400-800m-a huge distance for someone on foot. Is it any wonder that people jaywalk? They also noted the problems of fences around apartment complexes, schools, and commercial areas-I can't count the number of times I've walked the most direct path out of a suburban location only to find a fence, and then being forced to retrace my steps, walking an extra 500-1000m for no reason whatsoever.

Finally, I liked the idea of a “latent” pedestrian market in medium-density suburbs, that could be brought out with improved design.

Keywords: pedestrian planning, urban design, streets

Keywords: pedestrian planning, streets

An ongoing topic of interest in urban transportation engineering is the impact of changes in road network capacity upon the amount of vehicle travel made in the urban area. In many cases the debate focuses on the potential increases in vehicle travel occurring with increases in road capacity - the phenomenon of “induced demand”. Some studies have also looked at the effects of reductions in roadway capacity, and found that in many of these cases reductions in vehicle travel occur, generally confirming that a relationship exists between roadway capacity and vehicle travel.

This paper provides additional information on this subject, in a North American context.

The City of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada is a thriving major urban centre with a population of over 850,000, and a Downtown employment of over 100,000. Centre Street Bridge is a major road bridge across the Bow River connecting Downtown Calgary to the residential area in the north part of the City. The bridge carries over 34,000 vehicles per day, with heavy peak period flows. In August of 1999 the Centre Street Bridge was closed to car and truck traffic for a period of 14 months for major repairs.

A detailed study was undertaken of changes in weekday traffic, transit and pedestrian flows changes that took place in weekday travel patterns during the closure. This included both analysis of observed count data before and during the closure; and an interview survey with over 1,300 car users of the Centre Street Bridge and the other bridges serving the north side of the Downtown.

This paper summarizes the major findings of this study. Particular emphasis is placed on explaining what happened to the vehicle trips that used the Bridge before the closure.

While I'm not pleased with the results they report, I'm not too surprised. I imagine some of this can be attributed to the fact that it's car-addicted Calgary, but it's still a disappointing result: very little mode shift (<10%). On the upside, the city didn't stop working during the bridge closure; drivers just had to shift their travel times and routes. This isn't very politically acceptable, though; many would feel hard done by if this occurred during a Burrard Bridge lane closure.

Keywords: induced travel, canada, transport modelling, streets, roadspace reallocation

Somewhat interesting, mostly due to its rarity: there are very few North American studies of pavement colouring. It's a rural context, and hence not very applicable in the situations I examine, where a bike lane might be coloured adjacent to a parking lane. The most curious aspect of the paper is the author's choice to consider “motor vehicle encroaches neighboring vehicle lane when passing bike” as a major variable-it's an issue, but not a major one in my view.

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, pavement colouring, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, parking, pavement marking, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, streets, pavement marking, bicycle segregation

Many, many good references! This is a really good read.

Keywords: bicycle planning, bicycle segregation, pavement marking, streets

Keywords: streets, urban design, street design

Keywords: urban planning, streets, urban design, street design

Keywords: urban planning, streets, urban design, street design

detailed annotation

Keywords: urban planning, equity, transport planning, general interest, sociology, streets, pedestrian planning, accessibility, urban design

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, urban planning, bike box, street design, streets

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets

Keywords: street design, streets, urban design, architecture, sustainability

Keywords: urban design, streets, street design, urban form

Keywords: streets, urban planning, transport planning, street design

Keywords: streets, street design

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, streets, street design

Keywords: streets, urban planning, urban form, transport planning, street design, urban design

Keywords: streets, urban design, urban form, street design

Keywords: streets

Keywords: streets, urban planning

Some interesting discussion. This design served as the prototype for suburban layouts for quite a while, although the results have not met the optimistic expectations laid out here. Many of his goals are laudable (walking distance to all amenities, avoid forcing children to cross arterials, etc.) while others are not (promoting segregation).

“It is plain that arterial highways must necessarily run in every direction and turn the street system into a network, and that residential life must occupy the interstitial spaces.” This marked one of the first times that a neighbourhood was planned inside the bounds of a square of “arterials,” and that framing proved popular, although Jane Jacobs has made strong arguments against it. Perry represents Jacobs' antithesis, I think: patriarchal and paternalist, aiming to plan and provide for whatever needs he considers valid. He calls the regular grid of equal-sized streets “leading nowhere in particular” while his meandering discontinuous street plan is “leading to places where people go.” It's a deceptively persuasive argument-who would be against good design?-but it's ultimately patronising and controlling.

Keywords: urban planning, urban design, streets

detailed annotation

This book examines the development of Vancouver's unique approach to zoning, planning, and urban design from the early 1970s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. By the late 1990s, Vancouver had established a reputation in North America for its planning achievement, especially for its creation of a participative, responsive, and design-led approach to urban regeneration and redevelopment. This system has other important features: an innovative approach to megaproject planning, a system of cost and amenity levies on major schemes, a participative process to underpin active neighbourhood planning, and a sophisticated panoply of design guidelines. These systems, processes, and their achievements place Vancouver at the forefront of international planning practice. The Vancouver Achievement explains the keys to its success, and evaluates its approach to planning and design against internationally accepted criteria. Generously illustrated with over 160 photos and figures, this book - the first comprehensive account of contemporary planning and urban design practice in any Canadian city - will appeal to academic and professional audiences, as well as the general public.

Keywords: history, canada, urban planning, urban politics, architecture, streets, urban design

detailed annotation

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, pedestrian planning, traffic calming, streets

Keywords: streets, urban design

Keywords: urban form, streets, street design

Keywords: urban form, streets, urban planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, streets, urban planning, land use transport link

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, urban planning, urban design, street design, streets

Keywords: pedestrian planning, streets

Keywords: pedestrian planning, streets

This paper analyses the evolution of urban form in two North American metropolitan regions (Portland and Toronto) and asks how more sustainable regional form might come about in the future in these and other urban areas. In the past, dominant patterns of urban form have emerged in such regions at different historical periods. These morphological phases include mid 19th-century grids, streetcar suburb grids, garden suburbs, automobile suburbs and New Urbanist neighbourhoods (which have only recently made an appearance and may or may not become widespread). Judging by the performance of past types of urban morphology, five design values appear particularly important for more sustainable urban form in the future: compactness, contiguity, connectivity, diversity and ecological integration. Although these principles were not well supported by 20th-century development, contemporary movements such as the New Urbanism and Smart Growth re-emphasise them. The example of these two regions indicates that, in the absence of new technological, economic or geographical forces, public sector institutions and urban social movements represent the most likely means to bring about new, more sustainable types of urban form.

Keywords: urban form, canada, streets, history, transport planning, urban planning, new urbanism