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04 THE CONNECTIONS
4.1 Walking 4.2 Cycling 4.3 Public transport 4.4 Streets and traffic 4.5 Parking and servicing
4.6 Utilities infrastructure
What is meant by the Connections
Towns exist for interaction. They depend upon movement
systems - roads, streets, footpaths and public transport routes;
also the service utilities (water, gas, electricity, etc.) which make
urban life possible. These connections allow towns to work
and link to the wider world.
Linking up
New developments need to be clearly linked to existing routes.
The more direct links there are, the more successful will be the
integration of new and old.
Movement choices
Connections should give people the maximum choice in how to
make their journeys, with a presumption in favour of walking,
cycling and public transport.
A Sense of place
Making connections is an essential part of creating a sense of
place. This means that roads, streets and the routes for utilities
should be designed in response to the local context.
Safe routes for all
Maximising choice in how people move around means creating
routes all of which are felt to be safe. Segregated routes for
people on foot and cycles are not always the best solution.
The parking problem
Parking needs as much thought as connections. Indeed a
poor parking strategy can wreck a scheme.
Better traffic management
Design the layout of buildings and spaces to help control the
flow and density of traffic. Signs and add-on traffic calming
features should only be relied on as additional measures.
If the street is designed for low speeds, pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles can
1.75m 1.5m mix safely. Generally speaking conventional streets provide the most
3.25m
convenient, direct routes to places which cyclists and pedestrians, like
Kerb segregated facility bounded on cycle track side everyone else, want to get to.
1.5m 1.75m
3.25m
1.75m 1.75m
3.5m
• people prefer to walk along streets where they can be seen by drivers,
residents and other pedestrians;
• if segregated footpaths are provided, they need to be well-connected
and overlooked by houses and other buildings;
• all measures that slow traffic help pedestrians feel safer. At junctions,
the use of raised surfaces and tight radii make it easier for pedestrians
to cross;
A bridge giving access to the town centre over the
• well designed shared surfaces avoid conflicts of movement yet
railway is for trams, cycles and pedestrians only.
Freiburg, Germany. encourage other activities to take place. To achieve this, subtle
variations of material or bold changes of detail are appropriate,
depending upon the location;
• footpaths should lead where people want to go, rather than follow a
preconceived geometry;
• footpaths in new developments should be positive, direct and
barrier-free.
We cycle less in Britain than in many other European countries, not so much
because of topography and climate as because cycling appears to be unsafe
and inconvenient. Like walking, many of the measures to encourage cycling
are low key and simple. Cycling can be made more popular by providing
direct and convenient traffic-calmed routes, with a safe place for people to
leave their bikes at their destination.
On wide pavements, pedestrians and cyclists can share the same space, but
an arrangement with a raised kerb or clear markings is helpful to segregate
Converting car parking spaces nearest the station to
cycle racks encourages cycle and ride. Dortmund, cyclists from pedestrians. This arrangement also has distinct advantages for
Germany blind and partially sighted people.
When it’s too far to walk or cycle the best alternative to the car within an
urban area is generally the bus. The movement framework for new
development should provide for a direct bus route, or failing that easy access
to an existing route. Discussions with potential operators will identify what
kind of service can be provided and the type of bus to be used.
Shops
Bus Lane
Shops
After: Reducing the number of lanes and dedicating some of the road-space
as a bus lane and a widened footway enlivens the western end of the street
and ensures pedestrian and public transport priority.
7.5 – 12m
As well as providing access to buildings and the services to them, streets are
our most important public spaces. Streets serve many functions, not only
the circulation of traffic, but walking, cycling, play and meeting people.The
spaces defined by buildings frame the street.
Mews
12 – 18m
Streets are multi-functional spaces and there is always the risk of conflict
between uses. The key is to design for all the uses and users.
18 – 100m The classification of street types in Table 4.2 considers the street in terms of:
• Capacity: how movement of every kind can be accommodated safely.
• Character: the role of the street in the urban realm and the types of
building and landscape that line it (which is also influenced
by enclosure – see 5.1.3).
Square
27 – 36m
Table 4.2 Street types that combine capacity and character
Conventional Streets that combine capacity and character
capacity-based
terminology
Primary distributor Main road
Boulevard Routes providing connections across the city
District distributor Avenue or Boulevard
Formal, generous landscaping
Local distributor High Street
Mixed uses, active frontages
Access road Street or Square
Mainly residential, building lines encouraging traffic calming
Cul-de-sac Mews / Courtyard
Shared space for parking and other uses
Make the route go But traffic priority will 4.4.2 main routes
through sever the community
4.4.4 tracking
4.4.5 junctions
4m 6m Keep it tight
As with the street, so with junctions: it is the buildings and footway that
should define the space at a junction, not the rigid requirements of the
vehicle movement. A wide carriageway plus tight, enclosed corners, makes a
5500mm 5500mm better junction than cutback corners with a sweeping curve.
4m radius – refuse vehicle 6m radius – refuse vehicle turning The arrangement of a junction will always depend on the local context, and
turning blocks movement for allows movement on priority
other vehicles on priority road road but blocks movement on the amount of pedestrian and vehicle traffic that roads are expected to carry.
and non-priority road non-priority road
Tight corners with restricted sight lines have a major traffic calming effect.
But there are many cases where a development inherits an existing street
layout that cannot be traffic-calmed except through add-on measures.
When that is so, two points to bear in mind are:
• The measures should be designed with pedestrians, cyclists, public
transport, service and emergency vehicles in mind e.g. raised junctions
make it easier for pedestrians to cross and chicanes can be used to
Wide pedestrian crossing put people first
create informal spaces in the street.
• Traffic calming measures should be designed to suit the local context,
avoiding the use of standard solutions.This is the job of the urban
designer and landscape architect, not just the traffic engineer.
Raised carriageway
Cars are stationary for most of the time. Where and how they are parked can
be a major factor in the quality of a development. Having decided what level of
parking provision to make, the main consideration is how to incorporate
parking in a development without allowing it to dominate everything around.
In residential areas, with terrace houses, flats and maisonettes for example,
the scheme can be designed on the basis of communal, rather than
designated owner parking.
The Waitrose car park in Witney, Oxon, has been well-designed around existing mature trees
Multi-storey car parks should generally only be considered when they can be
designed to incorporate ground level activities such as shops or offices, and
then need to be carefully designed to contribute to the street scene.
Sensitively designed, multi-storeys integrate with the surrounding urban
fabric when they are ‘wrapped’by single aspect buildings for other uses.
An undercroft parking space
4.5.4 servicing
Disturbance caused by reversing lorries should be avoided in designs (here in the otherwise
impressive Brook Green flats-over-superstore development in Hammersmith, London)