Design manual
Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets
The design of roads and streets within urban speed limits.
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government · 2019 (version 1.1) · 165 pages
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- 9May 2019 (Version 1.1) Planning Guidelines: Local Area Plans 2013 This guidance document and its companion guide, the Manual for Local Area Plans (2013), was published by the Department of the Environment in June 2013. The LAP guidelines set out the range of requirements for the making of LAPs, including their content. Many of these requirements are concerned with placemaking and the design of streets and street networks, including: ‘improving the public domain by providing active frontage to all public spaces and routes, thus promoting streets which encourage pedestrian activity and are safer by benefiting from passive surveillance’. ‘providing compact, walkable neighbourhoods incorporating a variety of house types with mixed tenure’. ‘designing in active streets and designing out anti-social behaviour through urban masterplanning, encouraging good mixture of uses and adaptability of buildings’. ‘measures to encourage local people to adopt healthier, smarter ways to travel around their local communities, especially walking and cycling’ ‘pedestrians, cyclists and users of other modes of transport that involve physical activity are given the highest priority in transport and mobility strategies, policies and objectives’ The Manual for Local Area Plans provides more detailed measures to achieve these goals. In relation to street design, this includes: ‘Create or enhance a distinctive hierarchy of streets, spaces and landscapes within an integrated structure’. ‘Ensure priority for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport’. ‘Set out the nature and hierarchies of public transport’. ‘Optimise areas of high accessibility to public transport in terms of density and intensity of use’. ‘Promote shared, safe movement routes for all users and avoid duplication or separation of main movement routes’. ‘Set out the general movement function of routes and spaces within the route hierarchy’.
- Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets10 1.3 Application of this Manual The principles, approaches and standards set out in this Manual apply to the design of all urban roads and streets (that is streets and roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h or less), except: (a) Motorways. (b) In exceptional circumstances, certain urban roads and streets with the written consent of Sanctioning Authorities.2 This Manual cannot account for every scenario (particularly when retrofitting existing streets) that a designer may face, the application of principles, approaches and standards contained herein requires a degree of flexibility. This is provided to designers, within a limited framework, via the use of the following terminology: For the purposes of this Manual: • ‘Shall’ or ‘must’ indicates that a particular requirement is mandatory; • ‘Should’ indicates a recommendation. Where designers fail to meet a recommendation, they must clearly document the reasons as to why and propose a series of mitigation or compensation measures. • ‘May’ indicates a clarification, option or alternative course of action. 2 Sanctioning Authorities include: (i) Transport Infrastructure Ireland in respect of urban national roads. TII shall consult with the NTA in respect of such roads which lie within the Greater Dublin Area (ii) The National Transport Authority in respect of urban non-national roads within the Greater Dublin Area. (iii) The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in respect of urban non-national roads. The Manual introduces a set of principles, approaches and standards necessary to achieve best practice in urban roads and street design. Implementation of the principles approaches and standards will be achieved through actions at national and local level. At the national level: 1. The Department of Transport Tourism and Sport (DTTS) and the Department Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG) introduced this Manual as a key step in implementing the policies on promoting the use of more sustainable transportation proposed in Smarter Travel (2009) and the policies on sustainable living contained in the Guidelines on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (2009). 2. DTTS and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG, formerly Department of Environment, Community and Local Government) will work with local authorities in assisting with technical aspects of the implementation of the Manual on an on-going basis, learning from experience within Ireland and internationally. At city and county level: 1. Local authorities shall facilitate the implementation of the principles, approaches and standards to road and street design set out in the Manual in carrying out their development planning functions under the Planning Code. 2. City and County development plans shall reference this Manual in order to facilitate the implementation of the policies for sustainable living contained in the Guidelines on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (2009). Local Area Plans and also other non-statutory plans should also reference the principles, approaches and standards within this Manual, where appropriate.
- 11May 2019 (Version 1.1) 3. Local authorities should facilitate the adoption of the multidisciplinary approach to consultation where appropriate and shall use the relevant standards in the Manual when assessing planning applications which relate to or impact on urban roads and streets. 4. In the case of applications for planning permission and development consents to planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála, applicants and their agents shall: • Utilise, as appropriate, the multidisciplinary design teams advised in this Manual. • Carefully examine their development proposals which relate to or impact on urban roads and streets to ensure that they are consistent as far as is practical with the principles, approaches and design standards of this Manual. • Engage with planning authorities at an early stage, utilising the arrangements for pre-planning application consultation with regard to any issue that may arise in relation to the application of design approaches set out in the Manual. 5. In the case of local authority own development in relation to the design of urban roads, streets or networks,3 local authorities shall: • Facilitate as appropriate the multidisciplinary design teams advised in the Manual. • Ensure that the principles, approaches and standards of this Manual are applied as appropriate. 3 Including development made under Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations, 2001.
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- CHAPTER 2: RE-EXAMINING THE STREET The creation of walkable, cycleable and public transport orientated communities require that designers re-examine the way streets are designed in order to meet the needs of all users.
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- 15May 2019 (Version 1.1) 2. RE-EXAMINING THE STREET 2.1 The Need for Change Smarter Travel (2009) demonstrates that if travel trends within Ireland are not changed, congestion will increase, transport emissions will grow, economic competitiveness deteriorate, and the overall quality of life decline. Targets are set out to be achieved by 2020.1 These include: • The total share of car commuting to be reduced to 45%; • Walking, cycling and public transport to achieve a 55% share of journeys to work, with cycling comprising 10%; • Total kilometres travelled by the car fleet in 2020 not to increase significantly from 2009 levels. Table 2.1 illustrates how people within Ireland travel to work. This table serves to highlight the scale of the challenge ahead. Ireland is highly car dependent when compared with our European neighbours. 1 Refer to Chapter 3 - Smarter Travel (2009). Location/ Travel Mode Vehicle 72% 55% 72% 72% 68% 76% 75% 66% 81% On Foot 10% 14% 14% 15% 14% 14% 12% 13% 4% Bicycle 2% 6% 2% 2% 5% 2% 1% 3% 0.5% Bus, mini bus or coach 5% 13% 7% 4% 6% 3% 3% 8% 1% Train, Dart or LUAS 3% 7% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 3% 4% 0.5% Table 2.1: Mode of travel to work within the State broken down by urban area (source Census 2011). Note: vehicle includes car, van, lorry or motorcycle as driver or passenger. There have been significant changes throughout Europe in recognition of the influence the design of streets and street networks have on travel patterns. Smarter Travel (2009) recognises that unless streets are designed to better facilitate and prioritise alternative modes of transport (to the car), the targets contained therein will not be met. Section 2.1.1 below examines the relationship between the place and movement functions of a street, provides a review of conventional design practices and sets out an alternative, more sustainable approach. Dublin city and suburbs Cork city and suburbs Limerick city and suburbs Galway city and suburbs Waterford city and suburbs All other urban areas All urban areas All rural areas Ireland (state)
- Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets16 2.1.1 The Impact of the Car The car has a significant impact on how street networks and streets are designed and how people interact with them. The relationship between cars and people can be illustrated via four distinct models (see Figure 2.1): • The first model is where traffic and people are segregated and the car is dominant. • The second model is where the car and people are segregated from each other. • The third model is where traffic and people mix, although on a more equitable basis. • The fourth model is where the car is excluded altogether. Conventional design approaches in Ireland are largely based on the application of the first and second models. Pedestrian and vehicular movement are segregated from each other on the basis that a higher quality of service could be delivered for each mode. Conventional design approaches within Ireland are heavily influenced by the UK publication Traffic in Towns (1963) or the Buchanan Report, as it became widely known. Utilising the Radburn principles of segregation, the Buchanan Report envisaged the creation of a highly ordered and structured street network that separated different modes of travel (see Figure 2.2). The Buchanan Report was advanced in the UK by the publication of Roads in Urban Areas (1966). The Document proclaimed that ‘segregation should be the keynote of modern road design’ and ‘should be applied as far as practical or necessary’. It recommended: • The segregation of motor vehicles on the basis of purpose, destination or type. • The segregation of motor vehicles from vulnerable road users (e.g. pedestrians and cyclists). Figure 2.1: Four models of road design, adapted from Jan Gehl within Life Between Buildings (1971), illustrating the relationship between cars and people within a road or street. 3. INTEGRATION 1. CAR DOMINANCE 2. SEGREGATION 4. CAR EXCLUSION
- 17May 2019 (Version 1.1) • The provision of ‘distributor roads’ for ‘the free flow of traffic at reasonable speed’ along which access and frontage development was fully or partially restricted. • The creation of ‘neighbourhood cells’ that restrict the movement of through traffic. • The segregation of moving vehicles from parked vehicles primarily through restrictions on on-street parking. These recommendations had a major influence in Ireland as designers became increasingly focused on traffic flow and capacity. One of the most expansive examples of this influence can be seen in the Dublin Transportation Strategy (1971) which sought to reshape inner Dublin into a functional system of one-way street systems, ring roads and motorways in order to relieve congestion (see Figure 2.3). Whilst such a grand scheme was never realised, many streets were incrementally changed over time (including conversion to one-way systems) to increase capacity and reduce congestion. Figure 2.2: Images from the highly influential Traffic in Towns which drew upon the modernist vision of a highly ordered and efficient road network where users were vertically segregated by type (image source: Traffic in Towns (1963)). Figure 2.3: Dublin Transport Strategy (1971). Although the scale of vision was never realised many aspects such as one-way traffic systems were implemented.
- Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets18 The influence of Traffic in Towns (1963) is particularly evident in the design of new residential areas developed from the 1960s (see Figure 2.4): • Through traffic is channelled along a series of distributor roads that are designed with minimal interruption to the flow of traffic (i.e. frontage free, restricted points of access, no parking). • Access to the neighbourhood cell, and movement within it, is highly restricted. This is enforced by dendritic street networks that consist of a large proportion of cul-desacs. Figure 2.4: Example of a residential community designed according to the keynote principles of segregated street networks. 1) Distributor roads are designed to facilitate free flowing traffic and provide access to 2) neighbourhood cells. Movement through the cell enforced via a dendritic street layout of 3) cul-de-sacs that spread out like the branches of a tree (base image source: Google Maps). 1 2 3 1 2 3 Some segregated street networks may have benefits with regard to: • Separating slower and faster modes of transport. • The widespread application of cul-desacs may be popular because of their perceived safety and relatively traffic free environment (if short in length). • Large car free areas may shelter pedestrians and cyclists from traffic. However, segregated design solutions (particularly where the car is dominant) have tended to fail as places, increase car dependency and reduce pedestrians and cyclist activity. The following review of conventional design outcomes has a particular focus on the pedestrian environment as well as the street as a place. Many of the scenarios depicted are also of relevance to cyclists, with many similar issues highlighted throughout the National Cycle Manual (2011).
Source Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government: Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (2019 (version 1.1)) · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.