Rethinking Residential Streets
by Joseph Molinaro
Streets define the character of our neighborhoods. Yet too many communities still rely on outdated standards for local streets.
Read first few paragraphs of article:
In communities across the country, planners, engineers,
developers, and local officials are trying to create more
livable neighborhoods by taking a new look at design
requirements for residential streets. Streets define the
character of our communities and contribute to our sense of
place -- whether a quiet village, comfortable neighborhood, or
bustling city street.
While interstate highways and arterial highways properly assign
foremost priority to traffic needs, the residential environment
must respond to many other concerns. Residential streets are
more than just conduits for traffic; they form the setting for
our homes and are where neighbors meet and talk and children
play. In some ways, residential streets should be considered as
extensions of our front yards, rather than as transportation
facilities.
Unfortunately, outdated regulations in many communities require
residential streets to be designed to standards that are
suitable for major roadways. When the automobile began to
dominate our landscape in the 1950s, transportation planners and
engineers developed techniques for handling large volumes of
traffic at higher speeds. This work, combined with substantial
public funding, produced the modern, efficient highway network
this nation enjoys today.
But many of the design standards
developed for highways were incorporated into local subdivision
regulations and inappropriately applied to residential streets.
Too often, the result has been residential areas designed with
streets that violate the sense of neighborhood and that
encourage high-speed travel through our communities.
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