Urban Street Design Guide

By National Association of City Transportation Officials

The NACTO Urban Street Design Guide shows how streets of every size can be reimagined and reoriented to prioritize safe driving and transit, biking, walking, and public activity.  Unlike older, more conservative engineering manuals, this design guide emphasizes the core principle that urban streets are public places and have a larger role to play in communities than solely being conduits for traffic. 

The well-illustrated guide offers blueprints of street design from multiple perspectives, from the bird’s eye view to granular details. Case studies from around the country clearly show how to implement best practices, as well as provide guidance for customizing design applications to a city’s unique needs.  Urban Street Design Guide outlines five goals and tenets of world-class street design:

•    Streets are public spaces. Streets play a much larger role in the public life of cities and communities than just thoroughfares for traffic.
•    Great streets are great for business. Well-designed streets generate higher revenues for businesses and higher values for homeowners.
•    Design for safety. Traffic engineers can and should design streets where people walking, parking, shopping, bicycling, working, and driving can cross paths safely.
•    Streets can be changed. Transportation engineers can work flexibly within the building envelope of a street. Many city streets were created in a different era and need to be reconfigured to meet new needs.
•    Act now! Implement projects quickly using temporary materials to help inform public decision making.

Elaborating on these fundamental principles, the guide offers substantive direction for cities seeking to improve street design to create more inclusive, multi-modal urban environments.  It is an exceptional resource for redesigning streets to serve the needs of 21st century cities, whose residents and visitors demand a variety of transportation options, safer streets, and vibrant community life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Island Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781610915342

Book preview

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Using the Guide

The contents of this guide have been formatted so that a reader may engage with the material in a non-linear fashion. While each section provides varying degrees of detail and information, these sections present individual topics which do not require a complete reading of the material that precedes it.

RELATION TO OTHER NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL DESIGN GUIDELINES

The Urban Street Design Guide focuses on the design of city streets and public spaces. While other national manuals, such as AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, provide a general discussion of street design in an urban context, the Urban Street Design Guide emphasizes city street design as a unique practice with its own set of design goals, parameters, and tools.

In instances where a particular sign or marking should be used, the guide highlights its specific reference to the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Many cities have already gone through the process of developing a local street design manual in the interest of creating internal design consensus between different local agencies. NACTO references materials from a selection of these guides and urges municipalities to use the Urban Street Design Guide as a basis for the creation of local standards.

It is important to note that urban situations are complex. The treatments and topics discussed in this guide must be tailored to individual situations and contexts. NACTO encourages good engineering judgment in all cases. Decisions should be thoroughly documented. To assist with this, this guide links to references and cites relevant materials and studies.

LEVELS OF GUIDANCE

For most topics and treatments in this guide, the reader will find three levels of guidance.

Critical Features are elements for which there is a strong consensus of absolute necessity.

Recommended Features are elements for which there is a strong consensus of added value.

Optional Features are elements that may vary across cities and may add value, depending on the situation.

Note: Certain sections contain a general discussion only and have no critical, recommended, or optional points.

(above) Key points on renderings are highlighted in yellow. Highlights either refer to the treatment or topic being discussed or to the main thrust of the image shown.

Certain sections of the guide reference material in its companion document, the Urban Bikeway Design Guide (2nd edition), which may be accessed online at c4cguide.org.

Streets

3 Street Design Principles

4 Key Principles

6 Phases of Transformation

7 Street Design in Context

8 Downtown 1-Way Street

10 Downtown 2-Way Street

12 Downtown Thoroughfare

14 Neighborhood Main Street

16 Neighborhood Street

17 Yield Street

18 Boulevard

20 Residential Boulevard

22 Transit Corridor

24 Green Alley

25 Commercial Alley

26 Residential Shared Street

28 Commercial Shared Street

Streets are the lifeblood of our communities and the foundation of our urban economies. They make up more than 80 percent of all public space in cities and have the potential to foster business activity, serve as a front yard for residents, and provide a safe place for people to get around, whether on foot, by bicycle, car, or transit. The vitality of urban life demands a design approach sensitive to the multifaceted role streets play in our cities.

Street Design Principles

The Urban Street Design Guide crystallizes a new approach to street design that meets the demands of today and the challenges of tomorrow. Based on the principle that streets are public spaces for people as well as arteries for traffic and transportation, this guide foregrounds the role of the street as a catalyst for urban transformation. It cements the tactics and techniques being pioneered by the nation’s foremost urban engineers and designers.

Key Principles

In an urban context, street design must meet the needs of people walking, driving, cycling, and taking transit, all in a constrained space. The best street design also adds to the value of businesses, offices, and schools located along the roadway.

Streets Are Public Spaces

Streets are often the most vital yet underutilized public spaces in cities. In addition to providing space for travel, streets play a big role in the public life of cities and communities and should be designed as public spaces as well as channels for movement.

Great Streets are Great for Businesses

Cities have realized that streets are an economic asset as much as a functional element. Well-designed streets generate higher revenues for businesses and higher values for homeowners.¹

Streets Can Be Changed

Transportation engineers can work flexibly within the building envelope of a street. This includes moving curbs, changing alignments, daylighting corners, and redirecting traffic where necessary. Many city streets were built or altered in a different era and need to be reconfigured to meet new needs. Street space can also be reused for different purposes, such as parklets, bike share, and traffic calming.

Design for Safety

In 2012 in the U.S., over 34,000 people were killed in traffic crashes, which were also the leading cause of death among children aged 5–14. These deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries are avoidable. Traffic engineers can and should do better, by designing streets where people walking, parking, shopping, bicycling, working, and driving can cross paths safely.

Streets Are Ecosystems

Streets should be designed as ecosystems where man-made systems interface with natural systems. From pervious pavements and bioswales that manage storm-water run-off to street trees that provide shade and are critical to the health of cities, ecology has the potential to act as a driver for long-term, sustainable design.

Act Now!

Implementing projects quickly and using low-cost materials helps inform public decision making. Cities across the U.S. have begun using a phased approach to major redesigns, where interim materials are used in the short term and later replaced by permanent materials once funding is available and the public has tested the design thoroughly.

Phases of Transformation

The streets shown in this guide are depicted in three stages of transformation: existing, interim, and reconstruction.

Interim design changes for streets can be carried out using low-cost materials. These interim design strategies realize the benefits of a full reconstruction in the short term, and can help build support for projects or test their consequences. While not all projects should or need to go through these three phases, many projects can benefit from this approach.

Existing

Existing conditions demonstrate how traditional design elements, such as wide travel lanes and undifferentiated street space, have had an adverse impact on how people experience the streetscape.

Interim Redesign

Striping and low-cost materials can realize the benefits of a full reconstruction in the short term, while allowing a city to test and adjust a proposed