Streetscape Design
Our business has evolved to assist the many cities and towns where planners and designers are striving to revitalise their environments, providing greater space for people to shop or simply enjoy leisure time. However, centres must remain readily accessible by all key modes. Striking the balance in providing vehicle access whilst prioritising pedestrian movement is at the heart of Streetscape design.
We understand the diverse needs of modern cities and the importance of embracing sustainability, accessibility, inclusiveness and equality. At Crowd Dynamics, we have the tools and experience to work with stakeholders to help achieve designs that offer real tangible benefits and result in projects of distinction.
Central to our consultancy is our Urban Analytical Framework Tool (UAF) that enables design concepts to be tested and quantified so that scheme options can be valued against a range of metrics such as pedestrian delay, pedestrian density, level of service, vehicle delays, public transport delay etc. Our experience has showed that this approach helps to bring into focus all the diverse requirements of modern cities and provides a framework of evaluation by stakeholder groups.
Individual streets can be designed in many ways. This could be exclusively for dominant use by a single mode or balanced use by several modes. Subtle design changes make a big difference to the operation of the street. In our approach, we consider the following:
- Optimum widths for carriageways vs footways;
- Whether definition between carriageway/footways should be removed;
- Whether junctions should be signalised, be roundabouts or uncontrolled;
- Whether crossing options should be zebras, toucans or now more frequently controlled with pedestrians having priority over vehicles;
- The width of crossings that are necessary and whether a 'scramble' crossing can be introduced;
- Whether median strips or refuges necessary even though these could reduce footway width;
- Whether bus stops be accommodated and whether they be simple curb side stands, shallow sawtooth or double stands.
- If major passenger boarding number are likely, which type of shelter is appropriate and the width of footway that will be needed.
All of the above items need to be considered. Our experience of analysing and designing streets enables us to provide expert consultancy focussed on these issues.