D2 European Arterial Streets - Trafitec d2 - arterial streets... · A8.1 Brixton Road, unchanged street, London, ... D2 European Arterial Streets is the final deliverable of work

ARTISTS

Arterial Streets Towards Sustainability

Contract no. EVK4-CT-2001-00059

D2 European Arterial Streets

Historic Changes, Existing Situation and Processes

Status: Public

Prepared by:

Søren Underlien Jensen

Atkins

Date: August 2004

Project Duration: 1 December 2001 to 30 November 2004

European Commission Fifth Framework Programme Key Action: City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage

ARTISTS D2 European Arterial Streets – Historic Changes, Existing Problems and Processes

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Preface

The research reported in this document has been conducted by the ARTISTS consortium, funded by the European Commission and part of Key Action “City of Tomorrow” in the 5th Framework. The ARTISTS consortium consists of the following contractors: Co-ordinator: Lund University, Sweden Assistant co-ordinator: Atkins, Denmark Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Danish Transport Research Institute, Denmark Endresz Kft, Hungary Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Portugal INTRA, Ingeniería de Tráfico, Spain Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium University of Kaiserslautern, Germany University of Westminster, UK City of Malmö, Sweden City of Copenhagen, Denmark Municipality of Kalamaria, Greece City of Porto, Portugal City of Girona, Spain City of Freiburg, Germany Transport for London, UK Work package 2 is led by Søren Underlien Jensen, Atkins, and deals with Comparative Assessment of European Arterial Streets. Besides Atkins, specific task contributors to WP2 are Paulo Ribeiro and Pires da Costa at Universidade do Porto, and Panos Papaioannou and Fani Hatziioannidou at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Besides these major contributors all partners in the ARTISTS consortium contribute to all deliverables.


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Contents

Executive summary .....................................................................................................5

1. Introduction ..............................................................................................................9

2. Existing problems on arterial streets ..................................................................11 2.1 Street typology ................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Description of existing problems ....................................................................... 16 2.3 Trade-offs ........................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 21

3. Long- and short-term changes and effects ........................................................23 3.1 Long-term changes and effects.......................................................................... 24 3.2 Short-term changes and effects ......................................................................... 26 3.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 27

4. Existing decision and design processes............................................................29 4.1 Planning conditions and practice....................................................................... 30 4.2 Policies and plans .............................................................................................. 32 4.3 Reconstruction experience ................................................................................ 36 4.4 Processes related to actual reconstructions ...................................................... 37 4.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 39

Appendix A. Street cases..........................................................................................41

A1. An overview of street cases……………………………………………………………… 41

A2. Chaussée de Louvain, unchanged street, Brussels, Belgium……………………...48 A3. Muzeum Körút, unchanged street, Budapest, Hungary…………………………….. 50 A4.1 Jagtvej, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark………………………………... 52 A4.2 Jyllingevej-Sallingvej, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark……………… 54 A4.3 Vigerslev Allé, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark……………………….. 56 A4.4 Amagerbrogade, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark…………………. 58 A4.5 Frederikssundsvej, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark……………… 60 A4.6 Valby Langgade, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark…………………. 62 A5.1 Eschholzstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany…………………………... 64 A5.2 Habsburgerstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany……………………….. 66 A5.3 Schwarzwaldstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany………………………68 A5.4 Bismarckallee, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany………………………… 70 A5.5 Carl-Kistner-Straße, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany…………………...72 A5.6 Sundgauallee, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany…………………………. 74


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A6.1 Barcelona, unchanged street, Girona, Spain………………………………………... 76 A6.2 Gran Via, unchanged street, Sabadell, Spain……………………………………….. 78 A6.3 Arago, reconstructed street, Barcelona, Spain……………………………………... 80 A6.4 Marina, reconstructed street, Barcelona, Spain……………………………………..82 A6.5 Marti i Pujol, reconstructed street, Badalona, Spain………………………………. 84 A7.1 Adrianoupoleos, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece………………………….. 86 A7.2 Ethnikis Antistasis, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece………………………..88 A7.3 Plastira, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece……………………………………... 90 A7.4 Egeou, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece…………………………………… 92 A7.5 Sofouli, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece…………………………………...94 A7.6 Ikonomidi, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece………………………………. 96 A8.1 Brixton Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom………………………98 A8.2 Old Kent Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom…………………...100 A8.3 Seven Sisters Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom……………. 102 A8.4 Camden Town, reconstructed street, London, United Kingdom……………….. 104 A8.5 Marylebone Road, reconstructed street, London, United Kingdom…………… 106 A9.1 Amiralsgatan, unchanged street, Malmö, Sweden………………………………...108 A9.2 Nobelvägen, unchanged street, Malmö, Sweden…………………………………. 110 A9.3 Bergsgatan, reconstructed street, Malmö, Sweden………………………………. 112 A9.4 Hamngatan, reconstructed street, Eskildstuna, Sweden…………………………114 A9.5 Regementsgatan, reconstructed street, Malmö, Sweden………………………...116 A10.1 Rua do Amial, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal………………………………. 118 A10.2 Avenida Fernào Magalhães, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal………………120 A10.3 Rua do Monte dos Burgos, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal………………. 122 A10.4 Rua do Campo Alegre, reconstructed street, Porto, Portugal………………… 124 A10.5 Rua do Restauração, reconstructed street, Porto, Portugal…………………... 126


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Executive summary

D2 European Arterial Streets is the final deliverable of work package 2 (WP2) of the ARTISTS project. According to Description of Work for the ARTISTS project there exist five objectives of WP2 Comparative Assessment of European Arterial Streets: • To classify arterial streets in accordance with methods defined in WP1. • To identify and characterise the current problems of arterial streets. • To assess long-term effects of street design and traffic control based on historical

analysis taking into account the general development of urban societies. • To assess short-term effects of recent reconstructions. • To describe decision-making and design processes related to recent

reconstructions. In the following, the findings in relation to these objectives are presented. Arterial street types The WP1 methodology regarding arterial street classification has not been used due to its prescriptive / assigning set-up. Instead a descriptive and objective method for classifying streets was used. Cluster analysis of 126 streets and character sections enabled us to identify five street types and additionally ten subtypes. The five street types are: • A – Low intensity street: Non-historic low buildings with “empty sites” in building

line. Normal width of street often 25-35 m between buildings. Mixed inactive land use with few doors opening to public realm. Typically 2-3 traffic lanes with 20,000 motor vehicles, but seldom congested. A noisy, poorly lit street with few signalised junctions.

• B – Narrow inactive old street: Low often historic buildings. Offices and public

services in an inactive narrow street of often 20-25 m between buildings with few doors open to the public. No median, 2 traffic lanes, low traffic volumes and good safety record. A street with no congestion and a low speed, which is compatible to pedestrian and cyclist volumes.

• C – Shopping street: Non-historic high buildings in street of normal width. Many

doorways in very active street with retailers and services. Often 2-4 traffic lanes with 20-25.000 motor vehicles, many pedestrians, but seldom congested. A noisy, well-lit, incompatible, risky street.

• D – Metropolis arterial: High often historic buildings in a wide street of often 40-

50 m between buildings. Many doorways in very active street with mixed land use. Often 4-6 traffic lanes, many signalised junctions, barrier median and high traffic volumes in every respect. A noisy, congested street with low speed.

• E – Suburban residential arterial: Low detached residences in a wide street.

Few public doorways and very inactive. Low traffic volumes, but 2-4 traffic lanes. A risky, high-speed, but sometimes congested street.

Street type B seems to be the type having the best performance (road safety, street compatibility, noise, ratio of people movement per AADT, and congestion), whereas


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type C, D and E have poor performance regarding some but different performance indicators. The German city Freiburg and Porto in Portugal do have several streets of type B, whereas type B is rare in other cities of ARTISTS. Type D is mostly located in London and Barcelona. Existing problems Core descriptors (movement efficiency, presence of vehicles, presence of people, speed of vehicles, doorways, transparency, enclosure, lateral spacing and greenery) and performance indicators enabled us to characterise existing problems on arterial streets. The analyses point towards that the ideal, sustainable, non-problematic arterial street, which is nearly optimal regarding core descriptors and performance indicators, may be described as having: • 2-4 traffic lanes with two-way motorised traffic, • at least 2.5 meter of footway on both sides of the street, • considerable high density of on-street parking spaces, • short distances between bus or tram stops, • more than 5,000 pedestrians per day at the busiest points, • less than 35,000 motor vehicles per day, • 85 per cent of motor vehicles drive slower than 50 km/h on all sections of the

arterial street, which often • has a pedestrian aiding median and is well-lit. The problematic street does not fulfil the above bullets to any larger extent. The existing problems differ from street to street and may be road safety, poor movement efficiency, noise, etc. Recently reconstructed streets experience fewer problems than streets, which have been left unchanged for 20-30 years. Appendix A gives a detailed description of the problems on each of the 40 street cases. The street type does not seem to be important to the overall assessment of problems on the arterial streets, i.e. when both core descriptors and performance indicators are taken into account. Making the perception of core descriptors or performance indicators dependent on the street type does not change the overall assessment of the individual street to any larger degree. Trade-offs and effects Based on multivariate analyses it is fair to state that reallocating space by reducing total width of traffic lanes and widening footways do improve road safety and reduce traffic noise. Implementing pedestrian aiding medians and removing barrier medians do also improve road safety and reduce traffic noise, but it also may reduce congestion and increase the ratio of people movement per AADT. There exist a strong relation between a high lighting degree and less congestion and traffic noise, however, increasing the lighting degree may not necessarily reduce congestion and noise, because the lighting degree is strongly related to land use. The study of long-term changes and effects clearly shows that arterial streets are constantly evolving. This evolution is different from the changes that occur when arterial streets are reconstructed, but there are many similarities between the long-term evolution and the short-term effects of reconstructions. The long-term evolution on European arterial streets is that facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers are becoming better, but greenery is diminishing. The


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control of traffic is stricter today that 20-30 years ago, i.e. speed limits are lower and manoeuvres at junctions are more controlled. Motor vehicle and bicycle traffic have increased in some cases, whereas occupancy rates in passenger cars have decreased. Road safety has generally improved, but followed the general development. In conclusion we may state that leaving arterial streets unchanged is not beneficial to overall road safety trends, because accident numbers on unchanged arterial streets follow the general trend, but people flow on arterial streets are constituting a still smaller and smaller share of the overall people flow. The reconstructions have changed the physical appearance of the streets more than the evolution on the long-term, except for the buildings. The facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport are improved to a greater extent during reconstructions than during the general evolution on the long-term. The car users are most often disfavoured in reconstructions. Motor vehicle traffic flows actually decrease as a consequence of urban arterial street reconstructions and road safety improves to an even greater extent than the general development. Increased investment in reconstruction of arterial streets may improve this situation. Reconstructions will typically involve capacity reductions. However, in order to get a greener appearance of arterial streets, there is a need to change both the long-term evolution and the way reconstructions are carried out in Europe. Decision-making and design processes The most successful reconstructions of arterial streets in terms of fulfilling stated project aims and providing positive feedback from the public and professionals are projects that have undergone public involvement prior to a political decision to design at the birth of the project, and / or where the decision to design only includes stated project aims and a decision to make a thorough and creative investigation of possible redesigns. Starting projects in such a way may challenge existing arterial street planning and budgets. However, more creativity and public involvement may fit well into a changed long-term planning regime. The chance for project cost overrun and budget difficulties are though higher than in less democratic planning with few standard designs, especially when public involvement enters on a late stage in the process or not at all, which is the case in around half of the reconstruction cases. Long-term traffic planning is threatened. The study shows that only around half of the reconstructions of arterial streets are part of long-term traffic plans. Long-term traffic planning may be strengthen by two types of action; 1) higher integration of public transport planning and road administrations, and 2) transfer programme funds of EU, national and regional reconstruction budgets to local authorities as part of block investment grants rather than project funds. Project funds though seem to promote creativity and public involvement, but is a barrier to more long-term traffic planning. National road standards and design guidelines along with local professionals’ street design experience play a very important role in arterial street redesign due to the reluctance to start projects creatively and with public involvement. National design guidelines seem to be used as a manual rather than a lifeline or checklist if the creative process provided only poor redesigns. There seems to be certain stages of change in traffic policy. High focus on more capacity for cars in cities is being replaced by high focus on traffic calming residential and central shopping areas. This transition seems to be almost complete in South of Europe. It has just started in East of Europe, but has been complete in North of Europe for several years. In North of Europe and to less extent South of Europe


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there seem to be still more focus on making arterial streets more pleasant for others than motorised transport. Today’s traffic policies prime motivator for more sustainable traffic is an overall aim that is stated in most policies – “improve the quality of life” – which is translated to “more humane proximities around homes”. The traffic policies indirectly state that the high levels of car traffic or poor performance of car traffic around homes is a prime reason to low quality of life. Since most arterial streets are home to many people it may simply be a matter of time before major changes occur. However, cities view the wanted economic development and improvement of quality of life as conflicting aims that are hard to reconcile on arterial streets.


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1. Introduction

The ARTISTS project is concerned with design and management of arterial streets towards sustainability. Sustainability is here understood in a broad sense, which not only relates to environmental quality but also includes social inclusion, economic vitality and urban quality of life. According to Description of Work for the ARTISTS project there exist five objectives of work package 2 (WP2) Comparative Assessment of European Arterial Streets: • To classify arterial streets in accordance with methods defined in WP1. • To identify and characterise the current problems of arterial streets. • To assess long-term effects of street design and traffic control based on historical

analysis taking into account the general development of urban societies. • To assess short-term effects of recent reconstructions. • To describe decision-making and design processes related to recent

reconstructions. D2 European Arterial Streets is the final report of WP2. It summarises, connects and discusses findings from three deliverables; D2.1 Existing Problems on Arterial Streets, D2.2 Existing Decision-Making and Design Processes, and D2.3 Long- and Short-Term Effects of Arterial Street Design and Traffic Control. WP2 addresses four of the seven main objectives of ARTISTS. In section 2.1 of this deliverable there are answers to objective O1 Devising objective definitions of the forms of different arterial streets, their functions and the various user groups involved. Methodological considerations regarding street classification can be found in deliverable D1 A Framework for Classification and Assessment of Arterial Streets. However, the D1 methodology has not been used in relation to the 40 street cases, because it is prescriptive not descriptive. Section 2.1 instead includes a descriptive “street typology”. Street types have been identified on the basis of cluster analysis. Answers to objective O2 Measuring the ‘performance’ of arterial streets, in terms of a range of criteria that extend from movement to environmental and social factors are part of section 2.2. Comparative assessment of performance and sustainability of the street cases have been based on 9 core descriptors and 6 performance indicators. These descriptors and indicators are presented in section 2.2, but the methodological development in relation to these can be found in D1 and D2.1. Section 2.3 and chapter 3 give answers to O3 Making explicit the various choices and trade-offs that are involved in deciding on transport services, traffic control and the allocation of road space of arterial streets. Section 2.3 identifies trade-offs between street design on one hand and street performance on the other hand. Chapter 3 has another approach and focuses on the changes through time and due to reconstructions. Section 3.1 describes the long-term changes to 21 arterial streets over two to three decades in terms of buildings, street design, street management and performance. Section 3.2 focuses on short-term changes as consequence of 19 recent reconstructions of arterial streets. By ‘reconstruction’ we mean everything from expensive physical alterations like a new tram line to cheap changes like marking a bus lane.


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O4 Assessment of existing implementation processes including public involvement and decision-making process is the focus of chapter 4. The planning processes related to 16 recently reconstructed arterial streets have been examined. In order to give an understanding of the context that these processes take place within, several topics have been described including planning regimes, financial structures, typical decision and design processes, experience and attitudes in relation to design of arterial streets, and related policies and plans. Appendix A is a short format presenting the 40 street cases. It describes the cases based on more than 1,100 pages of national reports, more than 500 pages of deliverables, and many spreadsheets with tens of thousands of data that have served as empirical basis. Appendix A includes street types, description of street, existing problems, short- and long-term changes, and decision-making and design process features related to each of the 21 unchanged streets and 19 reconstructed streets that have been found throughout WP2. This deliverable is based on national reports from nine countries. Belgium and Hungary were only obligated to provide inputs about policies and plans and one unchanged street case, whereas Denmark, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom were to give inputs in all areas regarding decision-making and design processes and 5-6 street cases per country. A guide was used to inform the 16 research and city partners about how to write the national reports. The guide is called “Case Study Guide” and is available on the ARTISTS homepage (http://www.tft.lth.se/artists) along with the national reports. In Belgium, the focus is on the Brussels Capital Region and two municipalities just outside the city centre. Brussels is Europe’s densest populated metropolis and has about 1.0 million inhabitants. In Denmark, we focus on the Municipality of Copenhagen, which is the most central local authority in Greater Copenhagen. About 1.3 million live in Greater Copenhagen and about 0.5 million in the Municipality of Copenhagen. In Germany, we focus on the Municipality of Freiburg, which is located in the federal state Baden-Württemberg. About 210,000 live in Freiburg. In Greece, the Municipality of Kalamaria is in focus, which is one of the more central suburban local authorities in Greater Thessaloniki. About 0.75 million people live in Thessaloniki and of these about 90,000 in Kalamaria. In Hungary, we focus on the City of Budapest, where about 1.8 million live. In Portugal, the focus is on the City of Porto, which is located in the north and has about 0.3 million inhabitants. In Spain, we focus on the city of Girona with about 70,000 inhabitants and located in Catalonia. We also present street cases from Badalona, Barcelona and Sabadell. In Sweden, the Municipality of Malmö is in focus and here live about 260,000. Malmö is located in southern Sweden. We also present a street case from Eskildstuna, which has 90,000 inhabitants and is located in central Sweden. In United Kingdom, we focus on Transport for London, who administers the major streets and roads in Greater London, where about 8 million live.


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2. Existing problems on arterial streets

An existing problem of an arterial street may be viewed as conflicts between different street users or a situation that does not fulfil peoples intentions, planned objectives or stated policies, e.g. provide high enough mobility, good enough residences, safe enough streets, etc. An arterial street is also part of a street network and part of various urban structures. Arterial streets vary in terms of built form, street design and regulation, continuity, patterns of use, etc. The same magnitude and type of conflicts may take place in two arterial streets, but people, planners and politicians view the conflicts of these two streets differently, because the intentions, objectives and policies for the two streets are different. A street typology developed as part of D2.1 is presented in section 2.1. The typology is systematically based on the streets built form and land use. The belief is that there exist a strong relation between peoples’ intentions for the street on one hand and the streets built form and land use on the other hand. The idea behind the street typology therefore is to be better able to state what the existing problems are by taking into account built form and land use, and thereby hopefully peoples’ intentions for the street. It has not been possible to include the continuity of the individual street, i.e. how important the link is within the network. Therefore the street typology in section 2.1 is not necessarily well-related to traditional planned objectives and traffic policies, where streets are assigned / prescribed a strategic mobility function. Section 2.2 includes 9 core descriptors and 6 performance indicators as part of the street assessment leading to descriptions of existing problems on arterial streets. The core descriptors are based on absolute values, whereas performance indicators are based on values relative to other streets. Based on a simple trial scoring system some of the most problematic and unsustainable arterial streets are identified and compared with some of the most sustainable and non-problematic arterials. Section 2.3 then focuses on how the problems may be resolved by describing trade-offs between street design and traffic control on one hand and street performance on the other hand. Section 2.3 is based on comprehensive analyses, which is fully described in deliverable D2.1.

2.1 Street typology A street may be divided into character sections or locales. The character sections vary in terms of built form (e.g. width of street, height and density of buildings), land use, street activities, traffic volumes, etc. Here is presented a street typology developed on the basis of cluster analysis of 126 streets and character sections resulting in more homogeneous groups of character sections in terms of built form and land use. Cluster analysis is a multivariate procedure to form homogeneous groups of subjects (in this case; character sections) in relation to several characteristics or variables. The purpose is to create groups of character sections, where each character section inside one group is more similar to another character section of the same group than any other character section belonging to another group.


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One may look upon each character section as being unique, i.e. being dissimilar to other sections, but also as having similarities to other sections. The dissimilarities may be regarded as mathematical distances. The cluster methodology enables the analyser to identify an optimum number of groups each with an optimum low variance of the mathematical distances in terms of statistics. The groups are here called street types. The street types are formed and described on the basis of 10 variables for built form and land use, see table 1. The variables are described in deliverable D1.2 A First Theoretical Approach to Sustainability Concepts and Assessment Tools. However, the land use was defined separately in D2.1 and is described in the notes of table 1. The cluster analysis shows that the optimum number of street types is 6, and these are also shown in table 1. Table 1: Statistics of characterising variables forming the street types.

Street type (number of streets and character sections)

Variable

A (47) B (9) C (52) D (13) E (4) F (1)

Height of buildings (m) Mean 12 11 17 232 10 14

Number of floors Mean 3.5 3.5 4.3 7.8 2.9 3.5

Ratio of length between frontages to length of frontage Mean 0.49 0.22 0.23 0.09 6.6 0.00

Number of historical buildings (per 100 m) Mean 0.13 0.52 0.11 0.56 0.00 2.7

Average distance between opposing building lines (m) Mean 30 23 27 45 50 110

Average width of public space between buildings (m)

Mean 24 20 25 41 39 110

Ratio of street width to building height (enclosure) Mean 2.7 2.2 1.7 2.1 5.4 8.1

Inactive building line (per cent) Mean 63% 76% 28% 22% 68% 19%

Number of doorways (per 100 meters of building line) Mean 5.8 6.4 9.3 8.0 4.2 7.7

Dominating type of land use1

Mixed land use (number of sections):

Residential (no.):

Offices and public services (no.):

Retail and services (no.):

26

20

0

1

0

0

9

0

3

1

0

48

5

2

3

3

0

4

0

0

0

0

1

0 Note 1: Dominating type of ground floor land use definition: If more than 70 per cent is residences then it is defined as residential. If more than 50 per cent is offices and public services or retail and services then this is the dominating land use. Otherwise dominating land use is defined as mixed. Note 2: The light yellow colour indicates lowest numbers, whereas dark green colour indicates highest numbers (or highest percentage regarding land use). Street type F consists of one character section and may be regarded as an outlier, i.e. the character section is very unique and can not be regarded as part of a group and being a street type. Therefore we do not look deeper into type F in the following.


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Street type B, D and E consist of relatively few character sections, whereas street type A and C contain the majority of the character sections. Later is given a verbal description of the street types. The street typology considers built form and land use. Interesting is to see how the street types differ in terms of street design and traffic volumes. The enormous data collection of the arterial streets enables us to characterise the street types in many ways. Studying the many variables, however, ended with choosing eight variables to describe the overall difference in terms of street design and traffic of the street types, see table 2. Table 2: Statistics of street design and traffic volumes of the street types.

Street type Variable

A B C D E

Total width of general traffic lanes (m) Mean 10 83 12 18 13

Total width of footways (m) Mean 6 3 6 11 14

Distance between signalised junctions (m) Mean 320 230 170 120 220

Number of pedestrians walking along the street (5 min in peak) Mean 40 30 60 100 40

Cyclists per average 24 hours Mean 2,500 <500 3,000 500 1,000

AADT Mean 20,000 12,500 23,500 32,000 15,500

Type of median1:

None (number of sections):

Barrier (no.):

Narrow aiding (no.):

Wide aiding (no.):

25

5

0

11

8

0

0

1

25

16

3

8

4

4

0

2

3

1

0

0

Lighting degree2:

Poor (no.):

Normal (no.):

Good (no.):

17

19

4

4

1

4

9

16

17

5

1

3

1

2

0 Note 1: Type of median: None – without median strip, Barrier – a median strip that forms a barrier to crossing pedestrians, Narrow aiding – helps crossing pedestrians and is less than 1.5 m wide, Wide aiding – helps crossing pedestrians and is wider than 1.5 m. Note 2: Lighting degree is based on information about street lighting and lighting from windows. Poor lighting degree equals less than 50 percent of the street surface is adequately lit. Good lighting degree equals more than 80 percent is adequately lit. Normal is between 50 and 80 percent. Note 3: The light yellow colour indicates lowest numbers, whereas dark green colour indicates highest numbers (or highest percentage regarding type of median and lighting degree). Looking at table 2 one may see that type B and D are very different. Type B has a narrow street design and low traffic volumes, whereas D is oppositely wide with high volumes. Type E has also a wide street design, but has low traffic volumes. Type A and C are in between B and D, but C differs to A by having slightly higher traffic volumes and having a higher lighting degree.


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Interesting is also to see how the street types differ in terms of their performance. In ARTISTS we holistically collected many performance data (economic viability, vitality, mobility, road safety, security, affluence / deprivation, health, air quality and noise) about the arterial streets. However, overall not many types of data were available for many streets and therefore useful for comparative assessment. Seven performance indicators could be used in the comparative assessment of street types, see table 3. Table 3: Statistics of performance indicators of the street types.

Street type Variable

A B C D E

Killed and injured per 100 m per year (relative risk)1

Mean 0.79 0.185 1.7 0.83 2.0

Accidents per 100 m per year (relative risk) 1 Mean 2.1 0.44 5.9 1.6 4.5

Average speed of motor vehicles (km/h) Mean 47 41 44 41 48

Street user speed compatibility2 Mean 1,600 6,800 -790 1,800 3,300

Average noise level in the middle of footways (dB(A)) Mean 70 68 70 70 67

Ratio of people movement per AADT3 Mean 3.3 4.9 2.6 3.6 3.1

Congestion4 Mean -0.34 -0.47 -0.30 0.14 0.14 Note 1: Relative risk: The risk on the road is dependent not only on the physical environment, but also on culture, legislation, enforcement, etc. Therefore the original number of injuries and accidents on the arterial streets has been multiplied by a factor taking into account the differing health risk (injuries and accidents per inhabitant) between the countries / cities. However, there seems to be problems by doing so, because the share of accidents that have been precisely located varies. Therefore one must be cautious with relative risk, especially when two individual streets are compared, see appendix A. Note 2: Street compatibility is a quick method for describing level of service for pedestrians and cyclists. It is defined in D2.1 as being equal to: 150,000 x exp (-0.07 x average speed of motor vehicles) – average daily number of pedestrians and cyclists. High values indicate good compatibility between motorised and non-motorised traffic. Note 3: The number of people flowing through the street in and on vehicles and as pedestrians is divided by Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT). AADT is expressed in passenger car units (pcu), where cars under 3.5 tons is 1 unit, cars over 3.5 tons are 2 units, bicycles are 0.3 units and motorcycles and moped are 0.5 units. Note 4: Congestion is a quick method for describing the streets basic ability to accommodate the motorised traffic. It is defined in D2.1 as being equal to: ((peak hour motorised traffic per through-going general traffic lane x 3.5 / average lane width) – 750) / 750. The method does not take congestion problems due to the adjoining street network into consideration, nor does it consider special junction designs / strategies. High values indicate congestion. Note 5: The light yellow colour indicates lowest numbers, whereas dark green colour indicates highest numbers (or highest percentage regarding type of median and lighting degree). Street type B seems to perform best in most aspects and may perhaps be regarded as the best performing street type. Type C, D and E perform poorly in different aspects. Type A is performing a kind of in between. Each of the street types varies considerably regarding each variable. This variance has been detailed analysed and the many results of the analyses may be viewed in


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D2.1. Subtypes of street type A, C and D have been identified in order to reduce the variance of the variables, and hence get a more accurate but also comprehensive picture of the many existing types of arterial streets. The street types and subtypes are described verbally in figure 1. Figure 1. Verbal description of street types and subtypes.

Type Subtype Name: Description

A Low intensity street: Non-historic low buildings with “empty sites” in building line. Normal width of street. Mixed inactive land use with few doors opening to public realm. Typically 2-3 traffic lanes with 20,000 motor vehicles, but seldom congested. A noisy, poorly lit street with few signalised junctions.

A11 : No “empty sites”. Narrow street. Many doorways. No signalised junctions. Low traffic volumes and speeds. Many people but few vehicles. A compatible street.

A12 : Many “empty sites”. Many pedestrians and cyclists – high speeds – and low compatibility.

A21 : Playa – wide street with private realms in front of residences. High traffic volumes.

A22 : Residential. Very few pedestrians. Never congested.

B Narrow inactive old street: Low often historic buildings. Offices and public services in an inactive narrow street with few doors open to the public. No median, 2 traffic lanes, low traffic volumes and good safety record. A compatible street with no congestion, but low speed.

C Shopping street: Non-historic high buildings in street of normal width. Many doorways in very active street with retailers and services. Often 2-4 traffic lanes with 20-25.000 motor vehicles, many pedestrians, but seldom congested. A noisy, well-lit, incompatible, risky street.

C11 : Relatively lower buildings. Fewer pedestrians.

C12 : Alley – narrow street with high buildings.

C2 : Canyon – very narrow street with high buildings. Extremely many doorways.

D Metropolis arterial: High often historic buildings in a wide street. Many doorways in very active street with mixed land use. Often 4-6 traffic lanes, many signalised junctions, barrier median and high traffic volumes in every respect. A noisy, congested street with low speeds.

D11 : Very wide street with no congestion.

D12 : Very many historic buildings. Extremely many pedestrians.

D2 : Wide alley with very high office buildings. Extremely high motorised traffic volumes, low speed, and very often congested.

E Suburban residential arterial: Low detached residences in a wide street. Few public doorways and very inactive. Low traffic volumes, but 2-4 traffic lanes. A risky, high-speed, but sometimes congested street.


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2.2 Description of existing problems As mentioned in section 2.1 only 7 performance indicators are available for enough streets and character sections in order to make comparative assessment. However, speed is different compared to other performance indicators, because it does not result in a logical good-bad perception. A high number of killed and injured is always worse than a low number, but a high level of speed is not necessarily better than a low level of speed. Speed is important for mobility and hence societies’ economic vitality, but speed is also very important to social and environmental aspects and hence may therefore cause many conflicts between street users if it is too high. Speed has therefore been excluded as part of the performance assessment. But speed is indirectly included in many of the other performance indicators. There have been made two comparative performance assessments. Both are relative assessments, i.e. they compare an arterial street or section to the mean of other streets and sections. The two assessments differ, because the first assessment compares a street or section to all other streets and sections, whereas the second assessment compares a street or section to other streets and sections of the same street type. The relative assessment is simple and follows a straightforward methodology. Streets and sections having a higher performance indicator value in relation to the mean value are given one plus “ + “, but is the value more than one standard deviation higher than the mean value then it is given two plusses “ + + “, and vice versa for lower values “ - “ and “ - - “. In appendix A, each arterial street has been given plusses and minuses for those indicators, where data are available. The appendices of D2.1 also show the assessment of each character section. The performance assessment of all street cases shown in appendix A has also been given colours. These colours represent how the street performance may be viewed regarding each indicator, i.e. the link between values and perception, see table 4. Table 4. Performance assessment of values of indicators.

Relative performance Indicator

Very good Good Poor Very

poor

Killed and injured per 100 m per year (relative risk) - - - + + +

Accidents per 100 m per year (relative risk) - - - + + +

Street user speed compatibility + + + - - -

Average noise in the middle of the footways (dB(A)) - - - + + +

Ratio of people movement per AADT + + + - - -

Congestion - - - + + +

Poor or very poor performance may be regarded as “relatively” problematic. Table A1 in section A1 of appendix A describes observed existing problems of the unchanged arterial streets as those streets having poor or very poor performance relative to their street type.


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Table A1 describes other existing problems. These problems have been identified based on core descriptors / criterions / key indicator set defined in D1 A Framework for Classification and Assessment of Arterial Streets. D1 includes a set of 11 core descriptors. Using the core descriptors is another way of evaluating the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the street as opposed to the performance assessment described previously. Please see D1 for further explanation. However, only 9 core descriptors are included in the evaluation of the street cases in this deliverable. The descriptor street activity has only been described for 6 street cases and is therefore not relevant for comparative assessment and hence is not included. The descriptor degree of road engineering is not defined to an operational degree in its current set-up and therefore not included. A uniform way of evaluating each core descriptor in terms of absolute and objective values or values based on subjective judgement were given as an example in D1. The evaluation was based on a rating system. Some of the boundaries between the levels of the rating system have been changed due to data specifications, e.g. lateral spacing did not include side streets in D1, but is included here because the definition of when a space between frontages is a side street is unclear and differs from country to country. The core descriptors and rating system is given in table 5. Table 5. Core descriptors and rating system.

CORE DESCRIPTOR RATING SYSTEM

Movement efficiency > 2.5 2.2 to 2.5 1.9 to 2.2 1.6 to 1.9 < 1.6 People in vehicles / vehicles

A B C D E

Presence of vehicles < 10,000 10-30,000 30-50,000 50-70,000 > 70,000 AADT (pcu / day)

A B C D E

Presence of people > 300 150 to 300 50 to 150 10 to 50 < 10 Pedestrian flow in 5 minutes in peak hour A B C D E

Speed of vehicles < 40 40 to 50 50-60 60-70 > 70 85th percentile of motor vehicle speed (km/h) A B C D E

Doorways > 12 9 to 12 6 to 9 3 to 6 < 3 Doorways open to public per 100 m of frontage A B C D E

Transparency > 80 % 60 to 80 % 40 to 60 % 20 to 40 % < 20 % Proportion of the building frontage that is “active” A B C D E

Enclosure > 1:1.2 1:1.2 to 1:2 1:2 to 1:3.5 1:3.5 to 1:5 < 1:5 Building height to street width ratio

Canyon Narrow Optimal Wide Playa

Lateral spacing < 1.0 1.0 to 1.5 1.5 to 2.0 2.0 to 3.0 > 3.0 Frontage to space between frontages ratio (incl. side streets) A B C D E

Greenery Shapes Influence Cancel Sporadic None Degree to which greenery influences the streetscape A B C D E


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The light yellow or “A” is the most sustainable level and dark brown or “E” is the least sustainable level – in terms of arterial streets. The colour coding and rating system have been applied to all street cases in appendix A. The levels “D” and “E” are mentioned as observed existing problems in table A1 of appendix A. In order to find what characterises a “problematic” or “unsustainable” respectively a “non-problematic” or “sustainable” arterial street, a simple scoring system has been developed in relation to the colour coding on a trial basis, see table 6. This scoring system is then applied to both performance indicators and core descriptors. Table 6. Scoring system.

SCORE

COLOUR CODE 2 1 0 -1 -2 The scoring system have been applied to all street cases both unchanged and reconstructed streets, and an overview of the results may be seen in table A3 and A4 in appendix A. In table A3 and A4, it is possible to find those arterial streets with the overall lowest and highest scores, i.e. those streets that probably are respectively the most and least problematic. If we only consider streets with at least 9 scores, the five most problematic street cases are (average score, country code): Adrianoupoleos (-0.79, EL), Schwarzwaldstraße (-0.58, D), Jyllingevej-Sallingvej (-0.40, DK), Etnikis Antistasis (-0.36, EL) and carrer Arago (-0.30, E). The five least problematic streets are: Brixton Road (1.44, UK), Regementsgata (1.20, S), avinguda Marti i Pujol (1.11, E), Rua do Campo Alegre (0.93, P) and Carl-Kistner-Straße (0.92, D). We may characterise these streets by street type, subtype, street design, speed and traffic volumes, see table 7 on the next page. Looking at table 7 one may find that the street type / subtype does not seem to be important to the overall assessment of an arterial street when both core descriptors and performance indicators are included in the assessment. Problematic arterial streets may be characterised as having more space for general traffic, often one-way traffic, more motorised traffic driving at higher speeds, but seldom medians. Problematic arterial streets also have fewer parking spaces and bus stops per running meter. They seem to be less lit and have fewer pedestrians. It seems to be the combination of the various street design and traffic volume variables that adds up to a problematic arterial street. The reason for this is that a non-problematic street often is similar regarding some variables but dissimilar regarding others compared to a problematic street. There does not exist one wonder variable, which makes all the difference. This indicates that resolving problematic arterial streets involves several measures, not one simple solution. This is one of reasons why trade-offs have been analysed using multivariate statistics. Results of these analyses are presented in the next section 2.3.


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Table 7. Characterisation of problematic and non-problematic arterial streets.

Street

Str

eet t

ype

(sub

type

)

Wid

th o

f gen

eral

traf

fic la

nes

(m) (

O in

dica

tes

one-

way

traf

fic)

Wid

th o

f foo

tway

s (m

)

Wid

th o

f oth

er “l

anes

” (m

) (T

indi

cate

s tra

m li

nes)

Ave

rage

dis

tanc

e be

twee

n si

gnal

ised

junc

tions

(m)

Ave

rage

dis

tanc

e be

twee

n pa

rkin

g sp

aces

(m)

Ave

rage

dis

tanc

e be

twee

n bu

s st

ops

/ tra

m s

tops

(m)

Ped

estri

ans

per 5

min

utes

in

peak

hou

r at

bus

iest

poi

nt

Cyc

list d

aily

vol

ume

(1,0

00)

Pub

lic tr

ansp

ort p

asse

nger

dai

ly

volu

me

(1,0

00)

AA

DT

(1,0

00 p

cu)

85th p

erce

ntile

spe

ed (k

m/h

)

Type

of m

edia

n (N

=non

e,

B=b

arrie

r, N

a=na

rrow

, W=w

ide)

Ligh

ting

degr

ee (

P=p

oor,

N=n

orm

al, G

=goo

d)

Adrianoupoleos A12/C11 O14 8 0 230 No 230 25 <0.5 17.0 34.5 84 N -

Schwarzwaldstraße A21/C11 13 2 T18 180 9 360 5 - - 52.0 54 W P

Jyllingevej-Sallingvej A12/A22 13 6 9 330 10 220 25 3.0 5.5 36.0 56 N N

Etnikis Antistasis C11 O14 14 0 190 No 240 15 <0.5 15.0 37.5 67 N -

Carrer Arago C12/D2 O18 9 3 140 9 No 95 - - 88.5 41 N P

Carl-Kistner-Straße B/C11/E 6 5 T11 490 5 330 55 - - 11.5 45 W N

Rua do Campo Alegre A21/A11 10 9 T4 360 4 140 50 <0.5 22.5 17.0 49 N P

Avinguda Marti i Pujol C11/C2 12 6 4 170 9 190 95 - - 7.0 31 N G

Regementsgata C12 7 8 15 360 6 180 - - 8.5 11.0 27 Na G

Brixton Road C12/D12/F 14 10 7 180 22 60 350 1.0 51.0 39.0 - Na -

Overall the ARTISTS analyses point towards that the ideal, most sustainable and least problematic arterial street in Europe today may be of any kind of street type / subtype and may be described as having: • 2-4 traffic lanes, serving two-way traffic, • more than 2.5 meter of footway on both sides of the street, • considerable high density of on-street parking spaces, • short distances between bus / tram stops, • more than 5.000 pedestrians / day at the busiest points, • less than 35.000 motor vehicles / day, • 85 per cent of motor vehicles drive slower than 50 km/h on all sections of the

arterial street, which often • has a pedestrian aiding median and is well-lit. If one can tick-off 6-8 of the eight dots above for their arterial streets then there is a good chance that these actually are sustainable in an economic, environmental and social sense. Four of the five problematic arterial streets are unchanged, whereas four of the five non-problematic streets have been reconstructed recently. The average score for reconstructed streets is about 0.3 higher regarding both core descriptors and performance indicators compared to unchanged streets. This should be viewed in relation to the difference between the top five problematic versus non-problematic streets, where average scores differ 1.6. This does not indicate that a really problematic arterial street must be reconstructed five times in order to be non-


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problematic, but indicates that reconstructions of arterial streets in Europe today are actually reducing the problems on arterial streets.

2.3 Trade-offs In order to find out how the street performance may be improved there have been carried out multivariate linear regression analyses of the performance indicators in table 4 using the street design and traffic volumes in table 2 as explanatory variables. On a 95 per cent significance level, the analyses prove that the number of killed and injured may be reduced by narrowing the total width for general through-going traffic lanes, reducing the number of cyclists and remove barrier medians. Besides this the analyses suggest that the number of killed and injured may be reduced by applying pedestrian aiding medians, un-signalising junctions and reducing the number of pedestrians. On a 95 per cent significance level, the analyses prove that the number of accidents may be reduced by widening the footways, reducing AADT and reducing the number of pedestrians. Besides this the analyses suggest that the number of accidents may be reduced by reducing the number of cyclists and by removing barrier medians. It has generally been proven that on “other-things-being-equal-basis” increasing traffic volumes (pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles) do contribute to more accidents, killed and injured. This study is in line with previous studies. This study points toward new interesting findings. Reducing the width of the carriageway, which some calls road diets, and widening of footways improves arterial street safety. The reallocation of space from motor vehicles to pedestrians may therefore be considered a safety measure. The study is though not necessarily in line with previous studies regarding signalised junctions and medians. Pedestrian aiding medians are well-known to improve road safety, which this study also shows. Barrier medians do typically improve pedestrian safety. However, this study indicates that the overall road safety is worsened when a barrier median is applied to the arterial street. Signalising junctions is known to have different road safety effects depending on several issues such as traffic volumes and speed. It may be true that too many signalised junctions cause safety problems. The study suggests that by reducing the number of signalised junctions and cyclists the street compatibility may be improved. This is not surprising, when one consider how the street compatibility is being calculated. On a 95 per cent significance level, the analyses prove that the noise level on the middle of the footways may be reduced by increasing lighting degree, reducing AADT and applying aiding medians. Besides this the analyses suggest that the noise level may be reduced by widening footways. These findings are not surprising except regarding lighting degree, which when increased is known to increase speed and thereby the noise level. The lighting degree is strongly related to land use, and changed land use may result in a changed noise level. On a 95 per cent significance level, the analyses prove that the ratio of people movement per AADT may be increased by reducing the number of cyclists and remove pedestrian aiding medians. Besides this the analyses suggest that the ratio may be increased by decreasing lighting degree, reducing AADT, increasing the number of pedestrians and removing barrier medians. These findings are to some


Page 21

degree surprising, but the “traffic engineer issues” like street lighting and medians may perhaps be indicators of a high motor vehicle ownership and thereby a low ratio of people movement per AADT. On a 95 per cent significance level, the analyses prove that congestion may of course be decreased by reducing AADT and increase the total width of general through-going traffic lanes. Besides this the analyses suggest that congestion may be reduced by increasing lighting degree and removing barrier medians. The trade-offs study shows some interesting results. It does point toward the fact that street performance can be changed by reallocating space and altering street design and traffic control.

2.4 Conclusion Using cluster analysis enabled us to identify five street types and additionally ten subtypes. The five street types are: • A: Low intensity street • B: Narrow inactive old street • C: Shopping street • D: Metropolis arterial • E: Suburban residential arterial Street type B seems to be the type having the best performance (road safety, street compatibility, noise, ratio of people movement per AADT, and congestion), whereas type C, D and E have poor performance regarding some but different performance indicators. On the basis of core descriptors and performance indicators we characterised problematic / unsustainable and non-problematic / sustainable arterial streets. The street type does not seem to be important to the overall assessment of arterial streets when both core descriptors and performance indicators are taken into account. Making the perception of core descriptors or performance indicators dependent on the street type does not change the overall assessment of the individual street very much. The analyses therefore point towards that the ideal, sustainable, non-problematic arterial street may be described as having: • 2-4 traffic lanes, serving two-way traffic, • more than 2.5 meter of footway on both sides of the street, • considerable high density of on-street parking spaces, • short distances between bus / tram stops, • more than 5.000 pedestrians / day at the busiest points, • less than 35.000 motor vehicles / day, • 85 per cent of motor vehicles drive slower than 50 km/h on all sections of the

arterial street, which often • has a pedestrian aiding median and is well-lit. Recently reconstructed streets experience fewer problems than streets, which have been left unchanged for 20-30 years. Based on multivariate analyses it is fair to state that reallocating space by reducing the total width of traffic lanes and widening footways do improve road safety and reduce traffic noise. Implementing pedestrian aiding medians and removing barrier


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medians do also improve road safety and reduce traffic noise, but it also may reduce congestion and increase the ratio of people movement per AADT. There exist a strong relation between a high lighting degree and less congestion and traffic noise, however, increasing the lighting degree may not necessarily reduce congestion and noise, because the lighting degree is strongly related to land use.


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3. Long- and short-term changes and effects

Key findings of D2.3 Long- and Short-Term Effects of Arterial Street Design and Traffic Control are presented in this chapter. New findings regarding controlled effects, where the general developments of the cities are taken into account, are also presented. The main objectives of D2.3 are to assess long-term effects of street design and traffic control based on historical analysis taking into account the general development of urban societies and to assess short-term effects of recent reconstructions. Long-term effects refer to the 21 unchanged streets and short-term effects refer to the 19 reconstructed streets. Since long-term effects are examined over a period of 20 to 30 years, it is rather unlikely that no changes have occurred to the street’s buildings, street design and traffic control. However, no changes have taken place during the last 5 to 10 years other than to patterns of use and performance, and therefore these cases are considered and called “unchanged streets”. The evaluation of long-term effects is based on available quantitative and qualitative data. As expected, the availability of data is very low when it comes to old data from 1970-1985. Only few old data were provided in most cases, the majority being performance data such as traffic or accidents. However, some qualitative data referring to buildings, street design and traffic control were given in certain cases by partners who know their history. Short-term effects are explicitly examined for the reconstructed streets, where the changes to the street are known in terms of date and context, and thus an evaluation of the effects is possible. There are much more data available in the case of short-term effects, though many gaps do exist in the requested data. Results based on reliable quantitative data are not possible in many cases. Instead there are provided overall results of qualitative form. These show an overall time trend that is supposed to be representative for the majority of cases. Arterial streets in urban areas are “living” entities. They evolve over time. The design and streetscape change. The impacts on people vary and they interact in many different ways. Some of the evolution, changes and impacts are described in four thematic areas; built form, traffic control, patterns of use and performance indicators. Built form covers more or less the same features that urban planners understand as “streetscape”, which include buildings and overall street design. The thematic areas are interrelated and there exists a rich bibliography on these aspects as well as on interrelations between traffic and land use. This summary does not aim at bringing this knowledge to the reader. On the other hand it presumes that the reader is familiar with it. It is well known in research communities that many descriptors of patterns of use and performance are interrelated. Increases in motorised traffic for example often create negative impacts to residents along a street, result in more accidents on the street, and make bicycle and pedestrian movement more difficult and unpleasant. On the other hand, higher traffic volumes may increase the value of business properties. Similarly, widening of streets to facilitate motorised traffic and parking creates both positive and negative effects to street users, inhabitants, shopkeepers and other groups of people. In general, many measures are beneficial to some or in some situations, but at the same time are disadvantageous to others or in other situations.


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Very often interventions or changes in arterial streets are made to achieve one or more goals. However, if relevant planning and considerations are not made, unwanted effects could happen over a short-, medium- or long-term period. There exist several cases in Europe, where reconstructed streets after some time are reversed to what they used to be. For example converting two-way streets into one-way streets and then making them two-way street again is not rare. A sound example in several countries is the dismantling of tram lines from central streets and the later return of modern trams systems to improve public transport. This chapter has three parts. The first and second part are respectively about long- and short-term effects and these parts are subdivided into the four thematic areas; built form, traffic control, patterns of use and performance indicators. The last part concludes and put the findings of the first two parts into perspective.

3.1 Long-term changes and effects A brief description of the findings regarding long-term changes and effects related to each of the four thematic areas is given in the following. An overview of unchanged street cases is given in table A1, A3 and A5 of appendix A. Built form This thematic area is represented by a long host of elements, but only six elements have been considered due to lack of data; building height, ratio of frontage to space between frontages, street width, side space width, trees and other greenery, and street lighting. 20 to 30 year old information about inactive frontages, doorways, street surfaces, guard railing, people spaces, etc, does not exist or is particularly time consuming to collect. From the available data and other information, it comes out that there is a rather wide variation in the recorded changes for the examined cases. The building height has increased in a few “suburban” street cases, but otherwise remained the same. Both the “suburban” cases and a few other cases, there have been constructed new buildings, which have increased the building density and thereby the ratio of frontage to space between buildings. Overall the buildings along urban arterial streets have not changed much during the past 20 to 30 years. The width of the street from building to building has remained unchanged except one case where the street width increased from 20 to 27 metres. The width of side space has increased in more cases, however not necessarily for the entire length of the street. The extra side space is primarily allocated to pedestrians and cyclists, which shows the increasing importance of non-motorised traffic has in street planning. Trees and other greenery tend to decrease in the long run for some cases, however, one case has experienced a greener appearance. Finally, there does not seem to have occurred major changes to street lighting in the “unchanged streets”. Traffic control The changes of traffic control such as junctions, speed limits, parking management, etc, are indicative of the gradual evolution that takes place over time as well as planning principles and cultural inheritance that prevail in local communities. This gradual evolution is to some extent an exhibition of local traffic policies and political


Page 25

priorities. Descriptors of traffic control are traffic regulation, division of carriageway, division of side space, junctions, cycle facilities, bus stops and pedestrian crossings. Speed limits have been reduced over time systematically from 60 and 70 km/h to 50 or even 40 and 30 km/h. This trend reveals the increasing importance given to e.g. road safety. Though most European arterial streets have a speed limit of 50 km/h, there exists a trend to reduce the speed limit even more. There is a significant increase in pedestrian facilities over time, i.e. more signalised pedestrian crossings and more underpasses and footbridges. Another change is an improvement of bus facilities, i.e. more bus lanes, bus priority at signalised junctions and more shelters at bus stops. Improvements both in quantity and quality have been recorded with respect to bicycle facilities. There are more signalised junctions and roundabouts along urban arterial streets today than 20 to 30 years ago. In general has the evolution of traffic control moved towards better facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers, but also stricter control of manoeuvres at junctions and for crossing pedestrians. This evolution may be different to recent reconstructions. Patterns of use Patterns of use are mainly described by traffic flows and land use data. We have collected data about motorised traffic flows and speed, vehicle ownership, occupancy rates and bicycle traffic flows. Old land use data are extremely time-consuming to obtain. We know that several land use changes have taken place, but due to lack of data it is not possible to extract and generalise solid conclusions. Table A5 in appendix A presents some of these data both as long-term changes and controlled long-term effects, where the general development of the city have been taken into account. Though motorised traffic flows in general grow over time on European roads as a result of increasing car ownership and higher travel speeds, in some cases in Scandinavia, the motorised traffic flows have remained constant or dropped. This reveals a number of measures taken to reduce traffic on arterial streets and create better and hence more sustainable streets. However, in other cases traffic has increased over time. The controlled long-terms effects show that the share of motorised traffic flow that arterial streets carry have been diminishing in the past two to three decades. Average occupancy rates have been reduced over time in all cases due to higher vehicle ownership. In many cases the people movement in cars has dropped, because occupancy rates have decreased more than vehicle flows have increased. With respect to bicycle flows, where applicable, there is an increase both in absolute flows and as a percentage of total flow. In some countries, such as Spain and Greece, a high percentage of motorised two-wheelers has been noticed previously, but these are much fewer today. Performance indicators The performance of arterial streets is given by performance indicators pertaining to demographics, economy, vitality, society and environment. Performance indicators include among others population, number of jobs, unemployment rate, land values and shop/house values, safety level, security indicators, atmospheric pollution, etc. Based on the available data it can be said that populations appear to be modestly increasing over time, while at the same time it becomes older. Some exceptions of


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course exist. With respect to crime levels, there are not sufficient and comparative data to draw conclusions. Similarly no data are available for the land values and house/shop values, though one would expect that values have gone up in real terms in most cases. Again no conclusions on general trends can be drawn regarding the economy of each street case as well as the unemployment rate. With respect to road safety along most of the arterial streets a decrease in accidents and injuries over time initially is noticed. However, this decrease has followed the general trend in accident numbers of the cities. Finally, pollution levels have decreased in most cases after the introduction of cleaner cars.

3.2 Short-term changes and effects A brief description of the findings regarding short-term changes and effects of reconstructions related to each of the four thematic areas is given in the following. Short-term changes were examined for the 19 reconstructed streets, where the changes were known in terms of date and context. An overview of reconstructed street cases is given in table A2, A4 and A6 in appendix A. Built form Buildings have remained unchanged from before to after the reconstructions, i.e. building height, density, doorways and the level of activity of frontages. However, the built form of the street has changed in many cases. Side space width has on average increased 1-2 metres in 9 of the reconstructed street cases. The widening of side space reduces the width of the carriageway and in many aspects promotes the non-motorised mobility and other street activities. Furthermore, medians have been constructed or widened in many street cases, which have reduced the width of the space for driving even more. Improvements in street lighting have been recorded in most reconstructed cases denoting the role of light to the quality of every day life in city streets. Traffic control The speed limit has been reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h in two streets and these streets have at the same time been traffic calmed. Three other streets have been traffic calmed while the speed limit has remained unchanged. Traffic calming measures include raised squares, humps, changes in surfacing, bollards, etc. The traffic control has changed from two-way to one-way traffic in two Greek streets. The number of through-going traffic lanes has decreased in five cases. At the same time has the width of traffic lanes decreased in seven cases while the width has slightly increased in three of the streets where the number of lanes has decreased. The space has been reallocated to side space and medians. There is a tendency for separating space for different modes. Trams were introduced in one street and relocated to a separate track in another street. Bus lanes were introduced in two streets and separate bicycle facilities in two other streets, where cyclists before rode in mix with motorised traffic. In some cases are signalised junctions reconstructed to roundabouts and ordinary non-signalised junction, whereas other cases install signalisation at junctions. In total it seems that signal-control is at the level before and after reconstructions of urban arterial streets.


Page 27

The analyses of side space division before and after reconstruction of arterial streets show that the increase in side space primarily favour exclusive parking lanes or bays and secondary favour bicycle traffic while pedestrians seldom gain extra space. The number of signalised crossings, underpasses and footbridges has not changed, whereas more non-signalised marked crossings exist today. However, pedestrians have gained better crossing possibilities in many cases due to fewer or narrower traffic lanes and more or wider medians. Pattern of use Average annual motor vehicle daily traffic has decreased 7-25 per cent in ten cases, remained unchanged in two cases and increased 6 per cent in one case. These decreases in motor traffic flow are due to the reconstruction in most cases, because the motor traffic flow was expected to grow otherwise due the general trend in the 1990s. Bicycle use has increased both in absolute terms and as percentage to the total traffic in five cases, but decreased in two cases, and this also seems to be a result of the reconstruction. Bus passengers increase in numbers in two cases and drops in a third case. Motor vehicle speed has dropped in most cases. Occupancy rates have either remained constant during the period of 3 to 5 years or they have decreased. Performance indicators The change of performance of arterial streets due to the reconstructions can only be given for some indicators, since only limited data are available for shaping a quite clear picture. Safety levels for example appear to be improved in eight out of eleven reconstruction schemes, but have increased in two cases when the general development is taken into account. The short time period elapsed does not really allow for an evaluation of other indicators such as economy or land use related indicators, though a tendency for cultural based activities is evident in many cases. Similarly evaluation of changes in demographic related indicators is not possible. Most of the conclusion that can be drawn is of qualitative form and come as a result of local knowledge and opinions of the inhabitants.

3.3 Conclusion The study of long-term effects clearly shows that urban arterial streets are constantly evolving in terms of all four themes; built form, traffic control, patterns of use and performance indicators. This long-term evolution is different from the changes that occur when arterial streets are reconstructed, but there are many similarities between the long-term evolution and the short-term effects of reconstructions. The long-term evolution on European arterial streets is that facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers are becoming better, but greenery is diminishing. The control of traffic is stricter today that 20-30 years ago, i.e. speed limits are lower and manoeuvres at junctions are more controlled. Motor vehicle and bicycle traffic have increased in some cases, whereas occupancy rates in passenger cars have decreased. Road safety has generally improved, but followed the general development. In conclusion we may state that leaving arterial streets unchanged is not beneficial to overall road safety trends, because accident numbers on unchanged


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arterial streets follows the general trend, but people flow on arterial streets are constituting a still smaller and smaller share of the overall people flow. The reconstructions have changed the physical appearance of the streets more than the evolution on the long-term, except for the buildings. The facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport are improved to a greater extent during reconstructions than during the general evolution on the long-term. The car users are most often disfavoured in reconstructions. Motor vehicle traffic flows actually decrease as a consequence of urban arterial street reconstructions and road safety improves to an even greater extent than the general development. In short, the long-term evolution of arterial streets is on a relatively sustainable path except for the still diminishing people flow and less and less greenery. An increased investment in reconstruction of arterial streets may improve this situation. Reconstructions will typically involve capacity reductions. However, in order to get a greener appearance of arterial streets, there is a need to change both the long-term evolution and the way reconstructions are carried out in Europe.


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4. Existing decision and design processes

Key findings of D2.2 Existing Decision-Making and Design Processes are presented in this chapter. The main objective of D2.2 is to describe decision-making and design processes related to recent reconstructions of arterial streets. Several topics have additionally been described in order to understand the background for these processes, including planning formalities, financial structures, typical decision and design processes, experience and attitudes in relation to design of arterial streets and related policies and plans. The decision-making and design processes have been divided into five stages in order to make communication easier: The problem identification phase leads to the decision to design. In this phase are the needs for change discussed. Often are topics like rationales, performance indicators, visions and alternative design options part of the discussion. The needs for change that the reconstruction has to solve may be altered several times after the decision to design. The decision to design is when politicians or administrative executives order the road administration or consultants to work out one or several alternative design options for a possible reconstruction. There might be several decisions to design related to the same project. This decision may mention one or several specific designs or focus on a set of key performance indicators, e.g. make safer without capacity reduction. The period between the first decision to design and the decision to reconstruct we call the project definition phase. In this stage is draft designs of alternative options, budgets and time schedules developed. It varies from project to project and from area to area how detailed the draft design(s) have to be in order to be further politically processed. The decision to reconstruct is when a majority of politicians or an assembly with delegated power formally accept a budget for reconstruction and the related design. The design is not necessarily fixed at this stage. Unforeseen possibilities of design improvements sometimes alter the design and budget. The decision to reconstruct is sometimes called the decision to build. These decisions are often the “point of no return”, i.e. it is rare a project is closed after a decision to reconstruct. The phase after the decision to reconstruct is implementation. Here is the detailed design developed and roadworks take place. A possible evaluation of the reconstruction and feedback to the project is included in this phase. Dividing the decision-making and design processes into five stages does not make sense in all cases. Sometimes the decision to design and decision to reconstruct is made at the same time. However, the five stages are used to describe processes related to 16 reconstruction cases. Appendix A gives some process details about the street cases that have been reconstructed except cases from Spain. The initial design ideas that are part of the 16 reconstruction cases mostly stem from local professionals’ street design experience and attitudes, which to a considerable extent is influenced by national road standards and design guidelines.


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The needs for change are an important driver for all projects. Cities’ policies and plans related to arterial streets typically give answers to the question: “Why do we want to change arterial streets?”, and are key background information for discussions in project identification phases. D2.2 Existing Decision-Making and Design Processes and the national reports have more detailed information about policies and plans in nine cities, but also show some key information about planning systems and practiced planning in seven countries.

4.1 Planning conditions and practice In Denmark (Police), Germany (regional traffic authority) and United Kingdom (traffic authority) must most often formally approve a reconstruction before the city council can initiate implementation. City councils can decide to implement a reconstruction without formal approval from others in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Many organisations are involved in arterial street reconstruction projects, and in some instances the law demands some organisations to be informed, involved or seen as a negotiating partner. These organisations are e.g. public transport authorities, adjacent road administrations, and regional or state planning authorities. In practice there are many more involved in order to get things done, like water works, electric works, gas works, district heat works, waste disposal organisations, telecommunication companies and fire brigades. In Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom the public must be consulted if the reconstruction project is above a certain magnitude or has certain impacts. In Portugal there is no legislative need to involve the public. The minimum consultation period varies from two to eight weeks. It is typical to inform the public by local media and direct mail to selected owners, tenants, associations and NGOs. Throughout Europe it is common to consult the public to a higher extent than the laws prescribe. There do not exist laws that hinder local authorities to consult the public in relation to reconstructions. The planning laws do not seem to be a barrier to more sustainable arterial streets in Europe neither do the minimum requirements of the laws seem to produce sustainable planning. However, the Police in Denmark can be rather conservative and do not necessarily approve traffic control measures that could lead to more sustainable arterial streets. Below is summarised common street planning and redesign processes. There are also mentioned some differences between countries. The project identification phase is the most important phase regarding discussions of the overall design of the reconstruction of an arterial street. Here are the basics for the reconstruction set and in this phase are the needs for change identified. The needs for change, however, are often identified in comprehensive plans. Other times this is identified by the administration due to rather newly changes, e.g. the location is identified as a black-spot or a major change in land use has caused new traffic patterns. Politicians or the public may also present new needs for change. This phase might be short or very long. Only Freiburg and Girona operates with systematic public involvement in the project identification phase. However, all cities involve the public in the elaboration of traffic plans except Girona that does not have traffic plans (only an old abandoned one from


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1980). The road administration in Girona works out more than one alternative in this phase and presents these to the public. The decision to design is where the outline for the reconstruction project is further specified and may be viewed as the start button for implementation of a reconstruction project. Few larger projects are stopped in phases after this. Often it is the local politicians who specify the premises for the coming project definition phase. The local politicians in Freiburg, Kalamaria, Malmö and Porto always make this decision. In cases where the local budget partially or not at all finance the reconstruction this decision is sometimes made by the local road administration, where grant policies (from e.g. European Union, national or regional government, private, etc.) and local traffic policies set some “outer frames” for designs that will be accepted and funded. It is unknown to which extent local politicians are informed, have accepted or approved these bids for grants, especially in Copenhagen and London. Girona is special, because the decision to design seems to be taken in consensus by a mix of municipal technicians, the public and politicians. The project definition phase brings the process from an outline of the project to a complete basis for a decision with draft designs, budgets, time schedules, etc. Typically, the process leads to only one design being presented to politicians for a decision to reconstruct. Freiburg, Malmö and Porto sometimes use design competitions among consultants to elaborate different alternatives, and here the decision to reconstruct may be taken by a jury or a political committee. In Germany, Greece and Spain the public must be informed in this phase, but it is typical to consult and have a dialogue with the public in this phase in most European countries, especially regarding larger arterial street reconstruction schemes. Most often the road administration steers the process from an outline to one or several draft design(s). However, the project organisation for larger projects may be organised differently, e.g. with executive boards, steering groups, managing groups, etc. Politicians, NGOs, experts, etc, may be part of such larger project organisations. The reason for doing so is that the complexity of the project is high and not included in the outline of the reconstruction project from the decision to design. The set-up of the project organisation is therefore important to the decision-making through the design process, both who make the decisions and on which basis, i.e. the various design choices tend to become more explicit if there exist formal decision structures. The decision to reconstruct is in all European countries made by the city council or a committee of politicians. This decision is the go for designing the reconstruction in detail and in most cases also allocates all necessary funds for the roadworks. It varies from project to project and possibly from city to city how detailed the draft design in the project definition phase is, and how the basis for decision to reconstruct is presented. Some committees or city councils may want to make the decision to reconstruct rather early in the design process, whereas others prefer to make this decision right before the roadworks start or are offered to competitive tendering. Implementation of the reconstruction includes detailed design, arranging roadworks, completing roadworks and sometimes communication with stakeholders during implementation, evaluation of the reconstruction and changes in performance. The detailed design is made by consultants and / or the road administration. Roadworks are most often offered to competitive tendering due to the size of the projects. Sometimes there is a cost over-run compared to the original budget from the decision to reconstruct. Only Malmö has communication with stakeholders and evaluation as common features, however, both evaluation and public involvement is sometimes done in other cities. Sometimes there is set up targets or aims for the reconstruction


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(often along with the decision to design), e.g. capacity for motorised traffic must not be changed or road safety must be improved by 50 per cent. In such cases are evaluations common. An important barrier to more sustainable arterial streets is the priority of finances. Funds to reconstructions of arterial streets are at a low level in all European countries. Basically, we can divide the origins of the funds into three groups; 1) local taxes, 2) regional, state, etc, taxes, 3) private funds. Arterial street reconstructions are paid almost entirely by local taxes in Denmark and Sweden. Here are local authorities not poor, but do simply not prioritise the road sector very high. Regional, state, etc, taxes pay a considerable part of the reconstructions in e.g. Germany, Greece, Portugal and United Kingdom. To some extent the funds coming from regional, state and other taxes are simply distributed to the local authorities after a specific model, which does not affect local decision-making. But another part of funds coming from regional, state, etc, taxes are programme funds, where the regional or state or federal or European authority basically decides which projects to fund. It is therefore difficult to identify the actual decision-makers, but money is often very powerful in planning. We may say that funds to reconstructions are low due to too few programme funds or too small local taxation or priority. Private funds play no role in arterial street reconstruction projects in most of Europe. However, private funds play a marginal role in Germany and Spain, but it is unknown to which degree the contributing “neighbours” affect the design decisions. The financial structure does not seem to have a major impact on the level of funds to arterial street reconstructions. Urban arterial street reconstruction is a low priority issue on all levels of public authorities. A short conclusion is that the current low level of finances to arterial street reconstructions sets the slow pace of change.

4.2 Policies and plans The cities included in this policy study are different in terms of formal political structure. Middle-sized cities like Girona and Malmö have a simple political structure and are represented by one city council. Larger cities and metropolis have more complex decision-making, and here are described policies from, e.g. a top level city authority (Transport for London), a central located local authority (Municipality of Copenhagen), and a suburban local authority (Municipality of Kalamaria). The cities basic traffic situations are also different, e.g. the existing design of streets, modal choice, km of street per capita, etc. Together with different levels of education, economy, housing standards, etc, this provides very different platforms to set up traffic policies and to plan and implement various types of actions on arterial streets. Despite these differences, there exist common policies especially regarding the overall aims. It is often mentioned that to “improve the quality of life” has top priority or is an overall aim. This overall aim is most often translated into a strategic level, where better housing supply, more humane proximities around homes and more or better jobs, are typical strategic objectives. It is not stated directly but between the lines, all traffic policies state that the level of car traffic or performance of car traffic has made the proximities around homes less humane and thereby reduced the quality of life. Many policies also mention that shopping and commercial areas should be revitalised or improved. Cities state that


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traffic policy is very important in this respect. This has led to traffic policies in e.g. Budapest, Girona and Kalamaria where traffic calming (both speed reducing measures and space reallocation) in central shopping and commercial areas and residential areas play important roles. Traffic calming has been implemented in North European residential and central shopping areas for decades, and the policies here just state that implementation should be continued or be technically revised. It seems like South and East of Europe for the moment is simply copying the North European traffic calming strategies – and thereby is just lacking behind, but work is being done to adapt a special calming theory for Mediterranean cities. The policies related to arterial streets are more diverse. However, most cities view the wanted economic development and improvement of quality of life as conflicting goals that are hard to reconcile on arterial streets. Basic beliefs are that a good circulation of people and goods and high accessibility to work places, shops, etc, are very important to the economic development, but too high levels of car traffic or too poor performance of car traffic leads to low quality housing, shopping, street, etc, environments. It is different how “people and goods circulate” perceptually in various policies. There is a growing understanding in South European cities that pedestrian traffic is important, which tends to affect the transport policies. There seems to be growing acceptance that other functions than those related to traffic actually are affected. People do live, shop, meet, work, go to school, etc, along arterial streets. This acceptance seems to grow as the possibilities of improvement to quality of life through traffic calming in central and residential areas diminish. The conflicting aims may be a prime barrier to investments in arterial streets. It seems like the decision-makers are incapable of making decisions that really change arterial streets on larger scales. The “doing almost nothing”-strategy seems to be the prevalent policy. Historically, the high focus on accommodating for future car traffic led to road expansions and new arterial streets by demolishing buildings in the 1950s and 1960s. Along with this focus several tram lines were closed, and footways and greenery were diminished. The oil crisis in 1973-1974 was a wake-up call in many European countries and cities. The projected high growth in car traffic did not drive on the arterial streets, but was located between towns and cities and in the suburban areas. The arterial street expansions almost completely stopped. In countries like Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands, where cycling is an important mode of transport, lots of arterial street space were reallocated to cyclists through the construction of cycle tracks, lanes and paths from the 1970s up till now. The focus on environmental issues and “street efficiency” led to bus lanes, new tram lines and wider footways in many European cities from the 1990s up till now. Besides space reallocation the policies and implementation have also focused on performance indicators such as road safety, air pollution, aesthetics, noise, and level of service for pedestrians, cyclists, car occupants, public transport users, car parking, etc. Historically, the choice of key performance indicators can be rather different between cities and changes through time. But, the outcomes in terms of arterial street reconstructions are less varied. An example is the implementation of cycle tracks in Denmark. In the 1970s the dominating rationale was the battle about road space, i.e. cars should not have all


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street space, the level of service for cyclists increased by constructing cycle tracks and cyclists got more pleased. The 1980s was different. Road safety became a key performance indicator and there was a strong belief that cycle tracks improved safety, because cyclists felt safer. In late 1980s and early 1990s, the environmental issues took over as dominating rationales. Danish towns and cities were “lucky” to have so much cycle traffic, because it limited congestion, air pollution and noise, and cycle tracks were constructed to support the cycling culture. In mid-1990s yet another rationale was added; the public health issue. Below is a short presentation of the policies in the nine studied cities. The focus is on issues like planning horizon, accommodating specified use, reallocation of space, favoured / disfavoured transport modes and key performance indicators related to arterial streets. This is not only based on the policies mentioned previously, but also case study descriptions and related discussions. Brussels seems to operate with a medium-term planning horizon of 5 to 10 years. Apparently, Brussels wish to accommodate all kinds of transport better, perhaps with a special preference to public transport. Street space is to be reallocated to pedestrians and cyclists through optimisation of the circulation of motorised transport. Brussels favours public transport, pedestrians and cyclists, but does not disfavour cars. Key performance indicators seem to be; travel speed of motorised traffic, accessibility (parking), level of service for public transport users, aesthetics (including cultural in heritage) and street’s cleanliness. Budapest operates with a long-term planning horizon of more than 10 years. Apparently, Budapest expects a high growth in car traffic and car ownership and in regional travel in general. The city operate with a dual-strategy, where the inner city is to be traffic calmed and beautified (including getting cars into newly built multi-storey car parks), and the focus regarding arterial streets in the rest of the city is higher level of service of motorised transport both cars and public transport. We may say that Budapest favours cars, public transport and pedestrians. Key performance indicators seem to be; travel speed of (accommodating growth of) motorised traffic, holistic traffic calming of the inner city, and traffic noise problems. Copenhagen operates with long-term planning. Copenhagen wants more cycle traffic, and expects more car traffic in and to urban development zones. Copenhagen wishes to reallocate space to cyclists and to a minor extent buses, and the city also favour these two transport modes, whereas car traffic is disfavoured through parking fees and signal-control. Key performance indicators seem to be; environment (air pollution, noise, etc.), level of service for cyclists and public transport users (travel speed of public transport play an important role), pedestrian crossing possibilities, road safety and aesthetics. Freiburg operates with long-term planning. Freiburg wants more to use public transport, bicycle and to walk. The city reallocates space to public transport, cyclists and pedestrians and favour these three modes through several other initiatives, and the city also disfavour car traffic. Key performance indicators seem to be; “sustainable” modal split, level of service for public transport users, cyclists and pedestrians, and to less extent road safety, air pollution and noise. Girona operates with a short-term planning horizon of less than 5 years. It has no traffic policies or plans. However, it seems like the city has a strategy, where the inner city is to be traffic calmed and beautified, and wider footways and car parking are prime objectives for the whole city. Expansion of the bus lines is another aim. The city tends to favour pedestrians and to less extent car traffic in the city centre.


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Key performance indicators may be; level of service for pedestrians and car parking. The new Catalan Mobility Act (2003) will oblige Girona to elaborate a mobility plan during the next years, and will initiate more long-term planning. Kalamaria has long-term planning. Kalamaria wants to accommodate an expected growth in car traffic and car ownership, but at the same time wants more to use public transport. The city will increase road capacity for motorists and reallocate space to car parking and pedestrians. The city favours cars, pedestrians and public transport. Key performance indicators seem to be; level of service for car users and pedestrians, road safety, increased public transport supply and aesthetics. London has medium-term planning. London wants the current traffic to perform better. The city wants to favour bus passengers, commercial vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and disabled people on arterial streets more than they do offer today. The city disfavours non-commercial passenger cars to a minor extent through pricing and capacity reductions. However, London reallocates space to buses and pedestrians primarily through optimisation of use of space to motorised traffic. Key performance indicators seem to be; people movement efficiency, accessibility of/to goods and services, speed of buses, road safety and air pollution. Malmö operates with long-term planning. The city wants more bicycle traffic and expects more car traffic and higher car ownership. Street space is to be reallocated to cyclists, pedestrians and car parking. The city favours cycling and cars. Key performance indicators seem to be; level of service for cyclists and car occupants, road safety and traffic noise protection. Porto operates with short-term event-oriented planning. The city wants more to walk and use public transport. Street space is to be reallocated to public transport and pedestrians. The city favours public transport and walking, and to some extent disfavour cars, but most reallocation of space occurs through optimisation of motorised traffic movements. Key performance indicators seem to be; level of service for public transport users and pedestrians, circulation of motorised traffic and aesthetics. The planning horizon does not seem to affect the outcomes of implementation, but it affects the clarity of policies. Financial structures and legislation regarding public involvement do not seem to affect policies, but only the processes of reconstruction projects. The cities view traffic differently. Cities plan changes as to how they want people to travel, how they expect people to travel, and how people currently are travelling. The different views result in rather different policies: • Proactive policies, where cities want to change transport choices. • Reactive policies, where cities accommodate expected or realised traffic. • Optimising policies, where cities focus on current traffic. Most of the cities have a mix of proactive, reactive and optimising policies, e.g. the wish for more public transport use, walking or cycling in the future is often physically supported through optimisation and limitation of space for current car traffic. The most important key performance indicators in the cities seem to be level of service for the various street users, travel speed of motorised transport, aesthetics, road safety, noise and air pollution.


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Cities implement different projects. To some extent this seems to be due to certain stages of change in traffic policy, e.g. East and South of Europe are lacking behind North of Europe in terms of traffic calmed shopping and residential areas. The stages of change also have implications on policies related to arterial streets, e.g. policies for traffic calming residential areas often use the rationale that through-going traffic should not be on residential streets and the logic consequence in people minds is that more through-going traffic should use arterial streets. Therefore traffic calming of specific areas is often coupled with traffic capacity increases of arterial streets. When the areas have been traffic calmed for many years, this logic no longer applies, and the policy for arterial streets may change and be more open to other views. Policies and attitudes seem to prescribe outcomes of changes, e.g. Porto states that better motor vehicle circulation lowers energy consumption and air pollution, whereas Copenhagen states that worsening bottlenecks will improve the environment. Since not all stated outcomes of changes can be true somebody are lying or are blissfully unaware of the facts. It seems that implementation to some degree forms policy, e.g. experimental designs seem to be a tool to develop policies in Copenhagen, where for instance a trial project with a median have made way for similar projects and influenced parts of the road safety policy. At the same time there seems to exist system dependence and learning processes, where implementation forms policy. An example is that trams of course play a more important role in Freiburg and Porto than in cities without trams. The intensity of the battle about road space is different in the cities. The arterial streets in e.g. Malmö are very wide in relation to the amount of people they carry, whereas in e.g. Brussels the space per person on these streets is small. Optimisation of people movement therefore plays a very important role in traffic policy in Brussels, whereas Malmö focuses more on other performance indicators such as road safety, noise, etc. The amount of space per person limits the list of possible designs. An interesting point of view is that in Brussels the possibility of change is small because of an intense battle about road space and in Malmö are the needs for change small because traffic is circulating well. The experience and consequent policy with various measures may differ tremendously.

4.3 Reconstruction experience The experience with various design elements is rather similar throughout Europe. However, the level of experience differs considerably regarding several design elements, especially tram lines and bicycle facilities. Regarding three design elements there are though some difference in the experience and the consequent attitudes among traffic planners. These three design elements are; signal-control strategies, one-way versus two-way motorised traffic, and pedestrian crossing facilities. Here there tend to be a North European experience or attitude that differs to a South European experience or attitude. South of Europe is more pro a signal-control strategy that optimises motor vehicle flows, and is more pro one-way traffic and formal pedestrian crossings. Priority to road safety, buses, pedestrians and cyclists play more important roles in signal-control strategies in North of Europe, where traffic planners are less pro one-way traffic and accommodate crossing pedestrians more outside formal crossings. The study has covered most of the design elements and typical reconstruction schemes related to urban arterial streets. The most successful schemes are marking


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of traffic lanes, implementing signal-control at junctions, implementing green waves, constructing roundabouts, constructing tram lines, widening footways and planting trees and other greenery. National standards and design guidelines made by national cross party organisations or branch organisations are the most important ways of accumulating knowledge and giving guidance to arterial street designers. Only local design policies seem also to be important in guiding designers. Design creativity in relation to reconstruction of arterial streets is often low. National standards and design guidelines along with local professionals’ experience and attitudes therefore play a major role in arterial street redesign. In contrast to this, planning formalities, public involvement activities and financial structures most often only play minor roles in design processes. The policies and plans focus mostly on performance indicators and rather little on street design. This again emphasizes that standards and design guidelines along with local traffic planners and designers’ experience and attitudes play a major role in actual street redesigns. Not to say that politicians and policies are of no importance, but constrained by design guidelines and capabilities in the local road administration.

4.4 Processes related to actual reconstructions The different levels of detail in the studied reconstruction cases have made it difficult to extract new knowledge through comparative analysis. This summary discusses some of the relations that seem to exist between the various stages of the processes. Project identification phase Six reconstruction cases are initiated by others than the road administration perhaps in relation with local politicians. These are Danish, Portuguese and Swedish cases. Only one of the projects, Valby Langgade (DK), came into existence through strong local pressure. The five other projects are two bus lane projects initiated by bus planning authorities (Amagerbrogade, DK, and Rua do Campo Alegre, P), two research or trial projects initiated by state research and development institutions (Frederikssundsvej, DK, and Regementsgatan, S) and one event-oriented cash box called Porto 2001 (Rua da Restauração, P). The ten other projects were initiated by the road administration perhaps together with local politicians. Seven of these projects are parts of traffic plans. However, Egeou (EL), Camden Town (UK) and Hamngatan (S) do not seem to be part of traffic plans. If the 16 projects together form a normal project pool, we may state that about half the projects is part of medium- or long-term planning. A quarter of the projects is “suddenly” given birth, because somebody other than the road administration puts a pot of money on the table. The last quarter of the projects arises due to surviving ideas from the public, politicians or the road administration that are not inserted in traffic plans. 13 of the projects are very concrete in the project identification phase. These projects seem only to miss funding (political acceptance), relatively minor design choices and implementation. The short description of these projects at this stage may be like this: “We want to improve … by implementing … ”, i.e. both rationale and solution is already decided.


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Three projects (Camden Town, UK, Hamngatan, S, and Rua da Restauração, P) are much more searching in their initial needs for change. Here is only known the rationale for the project at this stage, not the solution. These projects seem to have common features; 1) several alternative options are being investigated during the project, 2) expensive, 3) high risk for not being implemented, 4) successful in terms of fulfilling stated project aims or project vision and providing positive feedback from the public and professionals. Public involvement only takes place in three reconstruction cases in the project identification phase, namely Frederikssundsvej (DK), Valby Langgade (DK) and Bismarckallee (D). A common feature about these projects is that they also seem to be successful in terms of fulfilling stated project aims and providing positive feedback from the public and professionals. The six projects that have undergone public involvement before a decision to design or only have decided a rationale in this stage are all among the most successful projects. The risk for negative feedback from the public or major discrepancies between stated project aims and actual achievements is much larger for the ten other projects. Decision to design The decision to design is most often taken by the city council or a committee of local politicians. Only in cases where others than the road administration are paying parts of the project, the city council does not make this decision solely or at all. We may state that money exercise power. It is uncertain to which degree the public actually are able to influence the decision-making at this stage. The three “searching” projects are the only ones where the decision is to investigate and find the “best” solution to the launched rationale. The degree of detail of the design order varies for the other 13 projects. The aims with the project are often rather loose, i.e. qualitative aims. Very few operate with more quantitative targets. Only one of the projects has at this stage a pronounced limited budget. Project definition phase The most common design strategy is a stepwise strategy, where the design is becoming more and more detailed determined. Another design strategy is design competitions or setting up of complete alternatives with many different features. The reconstruction cases are not describing the stepwise design strategy in enough details in order to understand the process of setting up alternative options and rejecting options. The public have been involved in ten projects in this stage. Only three projects have not consulted or informed the public at this stage. Decision to reconstruct The city council or a committee of politicians makes this decision in all cases, however not necessarily solely, because other financial partners may be part of this decision.


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None of the projects have changed the rationale or vision for the project since the project identification phase. However, there may have been added some aims, i.e. the argumentation has expanded. The design is often very detailed determined at this stage and the budget and time schedule is also rather precise. Implementation Cost overrun seems to be common in Portugal and Sweden for arterial street reconstructions, whereas delays often occur in most countries. Public involvement is more often occurring at this stage. Some projects are unsuccessful or only partly successful in relation to the aims of the reconstruction, and some projects are relatively unsuccessful based on the feedback statements. As mentioned before, projects that involve the public to a considerable extent in the project identification phase or are very “searching” in the first three stages of the project tend to be successful. However, success also seems to depend on the reconstruction itself, e.g. bus lanes are not successful in the public eye, whereas tram lines are successful.

4.5 Conclusion The most successful reconstructions of urban arterial streets in terms of fulfilling stated project aims and providing positive feedback from the public and professionals are projects that have undergone public involvement prior to a political decision to design at the birth of the project, and / or where the decision to design only includes stated project aims and a decision to make a thorough and creative investigation of possible redesigns. Starting projects in such a way may challenge existing ways of making long-term planning and budgets that may be viewed as barriers to successful reconstructions. Long-term planning today tends to disregard or negligee a series of design and project process issues that are important to the success of reconstructions. Long-term traffic policies and planning focus on sets of performance indicators like travel speed, traffic capacity, road safety, air pollution, aesthetics and noise, and focus also on streets and roads as systems of movement with few standard designs. However, starting projects creatively and with public involvement may fit well into a changed long-term planning regime. Another challenge is larger lack of control over the design and consequently the economy of these projects. The chance for project cost overrun and budget difficulties are higher than in less democratic planning situations with few standard designs, especially when public involvement enters on a rather late stage in the process or not at all, which is the case in around half of the reconstruction cases. Long-term traffic planning is threatened. The ARTISTS study shows that only around half of the reconstructions of urban arterial streets are part of long-term traffic plans. The long-term traffic planning in cities may be strengthen by two types of action. One is higher integration of public transport planning and road administrations. Another is to transfer parts of EU, national and regional reconstruction budgets to local authorities as part of block investment grants rather than project funds. The project funds from EU, states, counties, etc, seem to promote creative redesign and public involvement, but is a barrier to more long-term traffic planning.


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National road standards and design guidelines along with local professionals’ street design experience play a very important role in arterial street redesign today due to the reluctance to start projects creatively and with public involvement. The national design guidelines seem to be used as a manual rather than a lifeline or checklist if the creative process provided only poor redesigns. This is not necessarily a hindrance to a development of arterial streets towards sustainability. However, it probably slows the development and is a hindrance to successful reconstructions. The experience with various design elements is rather similar throughout Europe except regarding three design elements, where some difference in the experience and attitudes exist. South and East of Europe is more pro a signal-control strategy that optimises motor vehicle flows, and is more pro one-way traffic and formal pedestrian crossings. Priority to road safety, buses, pedestrians and cyclists plays more important roles in signal-control strategies in North of Europe, where traffic planners are less pro one-way traffic and accommodate crossing pedestrians more outside formal crossings. The level of experience differs considerably regarding several design elements, especially tram lines and bicycle facilities. There seems to be certain stages of change in traffic policy. High focus on more capacity for cars in cities is being replaced by high focus on traffic calming residential and central shopping areas. This transition seems to be almost complete in South of Europe. It has just started in East of Europe, but has been complete in North of Europe for several years. In North of Europe and to less extent South of Europe there seem to be still more focus on making arterial streets more pleasant for others than motorised transport. Traffic policies today have a prime motivator for more sustainable traffic in an overall aim that is stated in most policies – “improve the quality of life” – which is translated to “more humane proximities around homes”. The traffic policies indirectly state that the high levels of car traffic or poor performance of car traffic around homes is a prime reason to low quality of life. Since most arterial streets are home to many people it may simply be a matter of time before major changes occur. However, cities view the wanted economic development and improvement of quality of life as conflicting aims that are hard to reconcile on arterial streets. Basic beliefs are that a good circulation of people and goods and high accessibility to work places, shops, etc, are very important to the economic development, but too high levels car traffic or poor performing car traffic leads to low quality housing, shopping, street, etc, environments.


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Appendix A. Street cases

Appendix A is a short format of more than 1,100 pages of street cases and more than 50 spreadsheets with tens of thousands of data that have served as empirical basis. An original street case from national reports is often about 20 pages with several illustrations. The national reports can be found on the ARTISTS homepage http://www.tft.lth.se/artists. Appendix A includes descriptions of street types, existing problems, short- and long-term changes and effects and decision-making and design process features related to each street case. A1. An overview of cases

Of the 40 street cases are 21 called “unchanged”, because the street design has remained almost unchanged for 20 to 30 years. The rest of the street cases have been reconstructed meaning that street design has changed recently. The level of change varies considerably. Street cases from other cities in Spain (Badalona, Barcelona and Sabadell) and Sweden (Eskildstuna) have been included. Most countries have 5 or 6 street cases except Belgium and Hungary who were asked to deliver only one street case each. The overview tables A1-A6 use several abbreviations and technical terms that need additional explanation. AADT is an abbreviation for Annual Average Daily Traffic, i.e. the amount of traffic that on average use the street within 24 hours. A calculation method for AADT is part of section 2.2. Country abbreviations: B = Belgium, HU = Hungary, DK = Denmark, D = Germany, E = Spain, EL = Greece, UK = United Kingdom, S = Sweden, and P = Portugal. The street cases have been split into character sections. Both the overall street and character sections has been described as street types and street subtypes (please see section 2.1). The overview tables only describe the street types of the character sections, whereas the case descriptions also include subtypes.


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Table A1. Overview of unchanged street cases.

Obs

erve

d ex

isti

ng p

robl

ems

Mov

emen

t effi

cien

cy, e

nclo

sure

, gre

ener

y, r

oad

safe

ty,

stre

et c

ompa

tibili

ty

Roa

d sa

fety

, str

eet c

ompa

tibili

ty, n

oise

, con

gest

ion

Mov

emen

t effi

cien

cy, d

oorw

ays,

road

saf

ety,

str

eet

com

patib

ility

, peo

ple

per A

AD

T

Mov

emen

t effi

cien

cy, p

rese

nce

of p

eopl

e, d

oorw

ays,

st

reet

com

patib

ility

, noi

se, p

eopl

e / A

AD

T, c

onge

stio

n D

oorw

ays,

late

ral s

paci

ng, s

tree

t com

patib

ility

, peo

ple

per A

AD

T, c

onge

stio

n P

rese

nce

of p

eopl

e, tr

ansp

aren

cy, r

oad

safe

ty, p

eopl

e pe

r AA

DT

Tra

nspa

renc

y, ro

ad s

afet

y, n

oise

P

rese

nce

of p

eopl

e, e

nclo

sure

, lat

eral

spa

cing

, roa

d sa

fety

, noi

se

Pre

senc

e of

peo

ple,

spe

ed o

f veh

icle

s, d

oorw

ays,

gr

eene

ry, n

oise

, peo

ple

per A

AD

T

Roa

d sa

fety

M

ovem

ent e

ffici

ency

, pre

senc

e of

peo

ple,

spe

ed o

f ve

hicl

es, l

ater

al s

paci

ng, r

oad

safe

ty, n

oise

, con

gest

ion

Mov

emen

t effi

cien

cy, p

rese

nce

of p

eopl

e, s

peed

of

vehi

cles

, roa

d sa

fety

, noi

se, p

eopl

e / A

AD

T, c

onge

stio

n M

ovem

ent e

ffici

ency

, spe

ed o

f veh

icle

s, e

nclo

sure

, la

tera

l spa

cing

, roa

d sa

fety

, noi

se

Pre

senc

e of

veh

icle

s

Pre

senc

e of

peo

ple

Non

e M

ovem

ent e

ffici

ency

, pre

senc

e of

peo

ple,

late

ral

spac

ing,

road

saf

ety,

noi

se, p

eopl

e pe

r AA

DT

M

ovem

ent e

ffici

ency

, lat

eral

spa

cing

, gre

ener

y, ro

ad

safe

ty, n

oise

, peo

ple

per A

AD

T, c

onge

stio

n

Tra

nspa

renc

y, g

reen

ery

Tran

spar

ency

, noi

se, p

eopl

e pe

r A

AD

T

Tra

nspa

renc

y, g

reen

ery,

noi

se, c

onge

stio

n

Sid

e s

pace

/ ca

rria

gew

ay

10 m

/ 9

m =

1.1

10 m

/ 24

m =

0.4

14 m

/ 17

m =

0.8

14 m

/ 14

m =

1.0

22 m

/ 13

m =

1.6

12 m

/ 8

m =

1.5

9 m

/ 24

m =

0.4

14 m

/ 19

m =

0.7

8 m

/ 12

m =

0.7

12 m

/ 38

m =

0.3

8 m

/ 14

m =

0.6

13 m

/ 15

m =

0.9

7 m

/ 14

m =

0.5

9 m

/ 14

m =

0.6

9 m

/ 21

m =

0.4

7 m

/ 14

m =

0.5

7 m

/ 17

m =

0.4

9 m

/ 22

m =

0.4

5 m

/ 8

m =

0.7

8 m

/ 18

m =

0.5

4 m

/ 8

m =

0.5

AA

DT

25,5

00

31,0

00

27,0

00

36,0

00

23,0

00

22,5

00

23,5

00

52,0

00

21,5

00

21,5

00

39,0

00

37,5

00

18,5

00

26,0

00

44,5

00

42,0

00

24,5

00

25,5

00

10,5

00

22,5

00

13,0

00

Str

eet t

ype

C

C

A

A

A

A, B

, C

B, C

, D

A, C

B, C

C, D

, E

A, C

C -

C, D

, F

C -

A, C

A, C

, E

A, B

A, C

, D

A, B

Str

eet,

city

and

cou

ntry

Cha

ussé

e de

Lou

vain

, Bru

ssel

s, B

Muz

eum

Kör

út, B

udap

est,

HU

Jagt

vej,

Cop

enha

gen,

DK

Jylli

ngev

ej-S

allin

gvej

, Cop

enha

gen,

DK

Vig

ersl

ev A

llé, C

open

hage

n, D

K

Esc

hhol

zstra

sse,

Fre

ibur

g, D

Hab

sbur

ger

Stra

sse,

Fre

ibur

g, D

Sch

war

zwal

dstra

sse,

Fre

ibur

g, D

Car

rer

Bar

celo

na, G

irona

, E

Gra

n V

ia, S

abad

ell,

E

Adr

iano

upol

eos,

Kal

amar

ia, E

L

Etn

ikis

Ant

ista

sis,

Kal

amar

ia, E

L

Pla

stira

, Kal

amar

ia, E

L

Brix

ton

Roa

d, L

ondo

n, U

K

Old

Ken

t Roa

d, L

ondo

n, U

K

Sev

en S

iste

rs R

oad,

Lon

don,

UK

Adm

irals

gata

n, M

alm

ö, S

Nob

elvä

gen,

Mal

mö,

S

Rua

do

Am

ial,

Por

to, P

Av.

de

Fern

|ao

Mag

alhã

es, P

orto

, P

Rua

do

Mon

te d

os B

urgo

s, P

orto

, P


Page 43

Table A2. Overview of reconstructed street cases.

Des

crip

tion

of r

econ

stru

ctio

n

Bus

lane

, bus

prio

rity,

bus

rea

l-tim

e in

fo

Gho

st m

edia

n, m

edia

n is

land

s, b

us p

latfo

rms

Gho

st m

edia

n, m

edia

n is

land

s, tr

affic

cal

min

g

From

2 to

4 tr

affic

lane

s, 2

tram

line

s cl

osed

New

tram

line

s, r

eorg

anis

atio

n of

par

king

New

tram

line

s, w

ider

foot

way

s, c

ycle

trac

ks c

lose

d

From

8 to

6 tr

affic

lane

s, w

ider

foot

way

s

Wid

er fo

otw

ays,

2 n

ew b

icyc

le la

nes

/ tra

cks

Wid

er fo

otw

ays,

mor

e gr

eene

ry, n

ew p

eopl

e sp

ace

Nar

row

er tr

affic

lane

s, w

ider

foot

way

s, n

ew p

bay

s

2-w

ay to

1-w

ay tr

affic

, sig

nalis

atio

n of

junc

tions

2-w

ay to

1-w

ay tr

affic

, sig

nalis

atio

n of

junc

tions

4 to

2 tr

affic

lane

s, w

ider

foot

way

s, h

igh

qual

ity s

urf

2 bu

s/ta

xi/c

ycle

lane

s, 6

to 4

traf

fic la

nes

Wid

er fo

otw

ays,

wid

er m

edia

n w

ith tr

ees

4 to

2 tr

affic

lane

s, ro

unda

bout

repl

aces

sig

nals

Pin

ch p

oint

s an

d sp

eed

hum

ps a

t jun

ctio

ns

Bus

lane

, mor

e tre

es, f

ewer

par

king

spa

ces

Rel

ocat

ion

of tr

am li

ne, w

ider

foot

way

s

Sid

e sp

ace

/ car

riag

eway

11 m

/ 10

m =

1.2

16 m

/ 11

m =

1.4

13 m

/ 10

m =

1.2

37 m

/ 13

m =

2.9

16 m

/ 10

m =

1.7

16 m

/ 30

m =

0.5

12 m

/ 18

m =

0.6

20 m

/ 28

m =

0.7

9 m

/ 13

m =

0.7

9 m

/ 11

m =

0.9

14 m

/ 19

m =

0.7

10 m

/ 9

m =

1.2

8 m

/ 16

m =

0.5

10 m

/ 34

m =

0.3

8 m

/ 22

m =

0.4

11 m

/ 9

m =

1.2

22 m

/ 8

m =

2.8

11 m

/ 12

m =

1.0

10 m

/ 7

m =

1.5

AA

DT

21,5

00

25,0

00

15,0

00

31,0

00

11,5

00

17,5

00

88,5

00

34,5

00

7,00

0

16,5

00

17,0

00

8,00

0

23,0

00

81,5

00

18,5

00

14,0

00

11,0

00

17,0

00

7,00

0

Str

eet t

ype

C

A, C

A, C

-

B, C

, E

-

C, D

C, D

C

C

A, E

A - D

C - C

A

A, B

Str

eet,

city

and

cou

ntry

Am

ager

brog

ade,

Cop

enha

gen,

DK

Fred

erik

ssun

dsve

j, C

open

hage

n, D

K

Val

by L

angg

ade,

Cop

enha

gen,

DK

Bis

mar

ckal

lee,

Fre

ibur

g, D

Car

l Kis

tner

Stra

sse,

Fre

ibur

g, D

Sun

dgau

alle

e, F

reib

urg,

D

Car

rer

Ara

go, B

arce

lona

, E

Car

rer

Mar

ina,

Bar

celo

na, E

Avi

ngud

a M

arti

i Puj

ol, B

adal

ona,

E

Ege

ou, K

alam

aria

, EL

Sof

ouli,

Kal

amar

ia, E

L

Ikon

omid

i, K

alam

aria

, EL

Cam

den

Tow

n, L

ondo

n, U

K

Mar

yleb

one

Roa

d, L

ondo

n, U

K

Ber

gsga

tan,

Mal

mö,

S

Ham

ngat

an, E

skild

stun

a, S

Reg

emen

tsga

tan,

Mal

mö,

S

Rua

do

Cam

po A

legr

e, P

orto

, P

Rua

da

Res

taur

ação

, Por

to, P


Page 44

Table A3. Scores / overall assessment of unchanged street cases.


Page 45

Table A4. Scores / overall assessment of reconstructed street cases.


Page 46

Table A5. Overview of long-term changes of unchanged streets and controlled long-term effects.


Page 47

Table A6. Overview of short-term changes of reconstructed streets and controlled short-term effects.


Page 48

Description: The 2.07 km of Chaussée de Louvain is of type C, shopping street, and has five character sections of subtype C2. Four sections have retail and other services and one section has mixed land use in ground floor. There are about 29,500 motorised vehicles, 4,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 11,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency

Presence of vehicles

Presence of people

E B C

Speed of vehicles Doorways Transparency

C A A

Enclosure Lateral spacing Greenery

Canyon A D

Map of street case:

On average the street is 20 m wide with 10 m side space and 10 m carriageway with two to four traffic lanes. There is a barrier median along some sections. Section 1 and 3 carry one-way traffic and are narrower (14-16 m) than the other sections (22-24 m) with two-way traffic. There is about 160 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 300 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared

number Relative to all streets

Relative to street type

Killed and injured 1.1 - -

Accidents 3.6 + -

Street compatibility -614 - +

Noise at footways -

People per AADT -

Congestion -

Cross sections of street:

1

5

A2. Chaussée de Louvain, unchanged street, Brussels, Belgium


Page 49

Photo of character section 3, one-way traffic:

Existing problems: Chaussée de Louvain is a radial arterial street close to the centre of Brussels. The street is very narrow compare to building height and therefore forms a canyon. More greenery in such a street will make the street look even narrower. The high levels of motorised vehicles and pedestrians may be very stressful in such a narrow street, and the poor street compatibility may be regarded as a prime problem. A better movement efficiency, where people shift from passenger cars to public transport, could certainly improve the sustainability of the street. Brussels has a very poor road safety record and this is not different in this street with 75 accidents per year. Long-term changes: The built form has overall not changed during the past 25-30 years, even though a few buildings have been demolished and others erected in section 4 and 5. Ground floor land use has many places changed from shops to homes. Some squares have been redesigned with trees, street furniture and lighting. The speed limit has been reduced from 60 to 50 km/h. The volume of motorised traffic has increased 12 per cent, which is much lower than the general increase of 47 per cent in Brussels as a whole. The capacity of the street is probably almost reached, and therefore congested, i.e. traffic growth in the future is most likely not to be expected.

Photo of character section 5, two-way traffic:

Today’s numbers and long-term changes:

Today’s number

Change in street case

Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 24,500 +12% +47%

Vehicle ownership - +78%

Bicycles / day <500

PT passengers / day 2,500 -14%

Average speed 49

85th percentile speed 54

Injuries / year 22 -62%

Accidents / year 75

Noise at footways 72

Businesses (no.) 398 -6%

Business rent price -

Homes (along street) 394 +4%

Housing price (1,000) -

Residents (in area) 18,732 -9%

Jobs (in area) 5504

Unemployed resident 1362 +43%

Working residents -

Income (in area) 18,261


Page 50

Description: The 1.7 km of Muzeum Körút is of type C, shopping street, and has one character section of subtype C12. The street has retail and services as land use. There are about 28,000 motorised vehicles, 27,500 tram and bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and about 14,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

B C C


B B A


Narrow A B

Map of street case:

The street is 34 meter wide with 10 meter side space and 24 meter carriageway with seven traffic lanes carrying two-way traffic. There is a barrier median with tram lines There is about 270 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 8 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 180 meter at bus / tram stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 2.7 + + + +

Accidents 6.9 + +

Street compatibility 779 - +

Noise at footways 71 + +

People per AADT -

Congestion -0.38 + +

Photo of the street in the 1970s:

A3. Muzeum Körút, unchanged street, Budapest, Hungary


Page 51

Photo at tram stop and two-way traffic, today:

Existing problems: Muzeum Körút is an arterial street in the centre of Budapest. High buildings along the street are not a problem because the street is wide. The prime problems are road safety, noise and congestion. The safety record in Budapest is okay, but this street is doing poorly regarding safety. Noise is a big problem and is a result of many cars close to the footways, i.e. the tram in the middle of the street “push” the cars closer to pedestrians. The street most possibly present it self relatively congested with very many street users. Long-term changes: Some buildings have been erected during the past three decades. The speed limit has been changed from 60 to 50 km/h. Traffic signals were established 1964-1986. The volume of motorised traffic has increased very much during the three decades, and more than arterial streets in West-European countries. This is due to a very high increase in vehicle ownership, which additionally has the effect that car owners today state that the city centre has too few parking spaces. Traffic noise has though decreased, because the composition of motor traffic has changed from heavy vehicles to passenger cars and speed most possibly has decreased.

Photo at footway, today:


Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 28,000 +69%

Vehicle ownership - +340%

Bicycles / day <500

PT passengers / day 27,500

Average speed 28


Injuries / year 19

Accidents / year 16

Noise at footways 71 -2%

Business (1,000 m2) -


Homes -

Housing price / sqm 612

Residents - -7%

Jobs -

Unemployed resident -

Working residents - -41%

Income -


Page 52

Description: The 1.68 km of Jagtvej is of type A, low intensity street, and has two character sections of subtype A12. Both sections have a mixed land use, mostly shops in section 1 and offices and university in section 2 and both section have several homes in ground floor. There are about 21,500 motorised vehicles, 5,500 bus passengers, 11,500 cyclists and 10,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B C


C D A


Optimal C B

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 26 meter wide with 14 meter side space and 12 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. Section 2 is 34 meter wide with 13 meter side space and 21 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and a wide aiding median. There is about 340 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 6 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 170 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.7 + + +

Accidents 4.2 + + +

Street compatibility -13,443 - - - -

Noise at footways 69 - -

People per AADT 1.9 - -

Congestion -0.42 - -


A4.1 Jagtvej, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 53


Existing problems: Jagtvej is an inner ring street of the central parts of Copenhagen. This is partly the cause to a poor movement efficiency (few bus passengers) and low number of people per AADT. The volume and speed of motorised traffic is not compatible to the presence of the many cyclists and pedestrians. This may be one cause to the poor road safety of the street, which seems to be a major problem. There exists a possibly to reduce lateral spacing by building new houses. This may increase the level of activity within the street. Long-term changes: Two houses and a short stretch of cycle track have been built along the street during the past two decades. The speed limit has been changed from 60 to 50 km/h. Bus priority and blue cycle crossings have been added to some signalised junctions. The volume of motorised traffic has decreased and bicycle traffic increased, also relatively to the general changes in Copenhagen. Development in the number of killed, injured and accidents has followed the general development. The noise level has lowered a bit.



Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 21,500 -15% +23%

Vehicle ownership 896

Bicycles / day 9,000 +162% +67%


Average speed 47


Injuries / year 13 -45% -38%

Accidents / year 35 -33% -35%


Business (1,000 m2) 356


Homes 3,977

Housing price (1,000) 125

Residents 6,119 +1%

Jobs 3,245

Unemployed resident 278

Working residents 3,247

Income 20,056


Page 54

Description: The 2.01 km of Jyllinge-Sallingvej is of type A, low intensity street. Character section one and three are of subtype A12 and have mixed land use in ground floor, whereas character section 2 is of subtype A22 and has primarily residences in ground floor. There are about 49,000 motorised vehicles, 5,500 bus passengers, 5,000 cyclists and 2,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

E C D


C D A


Optimal C C

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 28 m wide with 16 m side space and 12 m carriageway with four traffic lanes and no median. Section 2 is 26 m wide with 13 m side space and 13 m carriageway, but only two traffic lanes and no median. Section 3 is 37 m wide with 13 m side space and 24 m carriageway with six traffic lanes and a wide aiding median. There is about 330 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 10 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 220 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 2.5 - +

Street compatibility -734 - -



Congestion -0.01 + + +


A4.2 Jyllingevej-Sallingvej, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 55


Existing problems: Jyllingevej-Sallingvej is a radial arterial street some kilometres away from the central parts of Copenhagen. Movement efficiency is low and few pedestrians make the street “deserted”. The prime problem seems to be the many motor vehicles and high speeds. This causes a lot of noise and low street compatibility. There is also very likely a lot of congestion in peak hours, and the speed must then be very high outside peak hours. Long-term changes: A house has been replaced by a petrol station and shops have been replaced by homes during the past two decades. The speed limit has been changed from 60 to 50 km/h. The street now has fewer trees and more traffic islands than previously. Blue cycle crossings have been marked at signalised junctions, and continuous footways have been built across side streets. The volume of motorised traffic has followed the general increase in Copenhagen. Development in the number of killed, injured and accidents has followed the general development. Speed has decreased possibly due to still more congestion and the lowering of the speed limit. Bicycle traffic has also increased, but not as much as on other streets of Copenhagen.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership 1,455

Bicycles / day 3,000 +28% +67%


Average speed 50 -7%




Noise at footways 72 0%

Business (1,000 m2) 135


Homes 2,997


Residents 4,980 +1%

Jobs 1,383



Income 27,714


Page 56

Description: The 1.48 km of Vigerslev Allé is of type A, low intensity street. The first character section is of subtype A21 and has mainly residences in ground floor, whereas the second is of subtype A12 and has mixed land use. There are about 22,000 motorised vehicles, 15,000 bus passengers, 4,500 cyclists and 5,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

C B C


C E C


Wide D A

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 35 meter wide with 27 meter side space and 8 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes and no median. Section 2 is 35 meter wide with 13 meter side space and 22 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and a wide aiding median. There is about 300 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 4 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 135 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 2.0 - -

Street compatibility -4,364 - -





A4.3 Vigerslev Allé, unchanged street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 57


Existing problems: Vigerslev Allé is a radial street some km away from the central parts of Copenhagen. The street has very few doorways open to the public. The big square in the middle of the street section is being reconstructed and this may attract more people Generally the problems are not big, nor small. The street is relatively non-compatible due to high speeds. Congestion may occur especially in section 1. Long-term changes: Several buildings have been demolished and created the big square. Half of the square was pedestrianised, whereas the other was used as bus terminal, which was recently closed. Several shops have closed during the past two decades. The speed limit has been changed from 60 to 50 km/h. Blue cycle crossings have been marked. A junction has been signalised and at the same time was a pedestrian underpass removed. The volume of motorised traffic has increased, but not as much as the general increase in Copenhagen. Development in the number of killed, injured and accidents is slightly better than the general development. Bicycle volumes have not increased as much as in Copenhagen in general.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day 4,000 +27% +67%


Average speed 49





Business (1,000 m2) 297


Homes 3,475


Residents 6,078 +1%

Jobs 4,201



Income 24,846


Page 58

Description: The 1.73 km of Amagerbrogade is of type C, shopping street. Character section one and two is respectively of subtype C12 and C11, but both sections have retail and services as predominant land use in ground floor. There are about 16,000 motorised vehicles, 21,500 bus passengers, 13,000 cyclists and 9,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

B B C


A B A


Canyon B D

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 20 meter wide with 11 meter side space and 9 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes and one bus lane. Section 2 is 26 meter wide with 14 meter side space and 12 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes and one bus lane. There is no median. There is about 350 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 40 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 220 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.4 + -

Accidents 2.7 - -

Street compatibility -4,091 - - -





A4.4 Amagerbrogade, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 59


Existing problems: Amagerbrogade is a radial shopping street that runs from the outer parts of Copenhagen to the city centre. It is like a canyon with few trees. The street has many positive aspects, but is possibly congested and provides poor compatibility. Reconstruction and short-term changes: One bus lane was marked changing side at each signalised junction that was applied bus priority using GPS, which also was used to provide real-time bus information at bus stops and on-board buses. More parking restrictions and a new pedestrian crossing with a median island were also part of the reconstructed. Total costs were 3 million Euros. It was a “belt-up” project with the aim to diminish anger among people living close to the street. These people had hoped for a metro line, which was located elsewhere. Decisions were made on an executive administrative level until the decision to reconstruct. There was no public involvement until information about the project was provided after roadworks had finished. The number of bus passengers increased and so did also bus travel speed. Motor vehicle traffic dropped significantly partly due to opening of a nearby motorway. Road safety improved about at the same magnitude as motor traffic volumes diminished. Bus drivers and passengers were more satisfied after the project, whereas shop keepers and car drivers were less satisfied due to more difficulties with parking and deliveries.


Today’s numbers and short-term changes:

Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership 1,775 +30%

Bicycles / day 11,500 +27% +12%

PT passengers / day 20,500 +4% -5%

Average speed 32


Injuries / year 18 -13% +12%


Noise at footways 69 -1% +8%

Business (1,000 m2) 192 0% +2%


Homes 5,316 +1% +1%

Housing price (1,000) 90 +130%

Residents 9,057 +15% +3%

Jobs 1,985 +7%

Unemployed resident 424 -14% -11%

Working residents 5,194 +23% +14%

Income 24,877 +15% +17%


Page 60

Description: The 2.88 km of Frederikssundsvej is of type A and C, low intensity street and shopping street. Character section one and three are of subtype A12 and have mixed land use, whereas section two is of subtype C11 and has retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 20,500 motorised vehicles, 18,000 bus passengers, 5,500 cyclists and 7,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

B B C


C C A


Optimal C B

Map of street case:

The street is 25-29 meter wide with 15-16 meter side space and 10-13 meter carriageway. All sections have a wide aiding median and two-way traffic. Section one and two has two traffic lanes whereas section three has 3-4 traffic lanes. There is about 320 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 210 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 2.1 - -

Street compatibility -5,486 - - -



Congestion 0.18 + + + +


A4.5 Frederikssundsvej, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 61


Existing problems: Frederikssundsvej is a radial arterial street in the outer parts of Copenhagen. It is a fairly non-problematic street, but do have major problems with congestion and is not compatible at the current high levels of pedestrians and cyclists and high speeds. Reconstruction and short-term changes: A 2-3 meter wide ghost median was marked with white lines and red asphalt, and “strengthen” by median islands. A few new pedestrian crossings with footway build-outs and zebra stripes were made at some median islands. Car parking spaces were reduced and signal-control was changed. Blue cycle crossings were marked and platforms between cycle tracks and bus were constructed at bus stops. The overall aim with the project was to improve the pedestrian situation and safety, especially for the elderly. Local organisations for elderly people were involved throughout the project definition phase. There was generally much debate about the project. Politicians were worried about the streets capacity for motor vehicles. Total costs were 1 million Euros of which the Danish state paid half. Road safety improved about 30 per cent when the general development is taken into account. Motor traffic volumes decreased about 10 per cent even though business rose considerably due to the opening of a major supermarket. Bus passengers and cyclists increased, whereas speed decreased about 15 per cent.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day 5,000 +70% +12%

PT passengers / day 16,500 +5% -5%

Average speed 44 -16%

85th percentile speed 52 -13%




Business (1,000 m2) 273 +12% +2%


Homes 4,877 0% +1%

Housing price (1,000) 109 +130%

Residents 8,198 +3% +3%

Jobs 3,285 -1% +7%

Unemployed resident 344 -7% -11%

Working residents 3893 +15% +14%

Income 23,927 +15% +17%


Page 62

Description: The 1.64 km of Valby Langgade is of type A and C, low intensity street and shopping street. Character section 1 is of subtype A22 and with residential land use. Section is of type A12 and with mixed land use, whereas section 3 is of type C11 and with retail and services in ground floor. There are about 13,000 motorised vehicles, 3,500 bus passengers, 3,000 cyclists and 8,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B C


B D A


Optimal D D

Map of street case:

The street width varies between 18-25 meter with 10-14 meter side space and 8-11 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. Section one and two are widest in every way and have a wide aiding median. Section three is traffic calmed. There is about 410 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 9 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 0.8 - +

Accidents 2.1 - +

Street compatibility -4,640 - -





A4.6 Valby Langgade, reconstructed street, Copenhagen, Denmark


Page 63


Existing problems: Valby Langgade is partially a district high street with lots of shopping activity on section 3. A prime problem is the low number of people to the number of vehicles. Perhaps more greenery, doorways and less lateral spacing could resolve this problem. Reconstruction and short-term changes: A 2-3 meter wide ghost median marked by white lines and “strengthen” by median islands was applied along section 1 and 2 together with footways build-outs and marked parking lanes. The speed limit was lowered to 40 km/h in section 3 along with new greenery, bicycle stands, cobblestone square and bands, and footway expansions resulting in fewer car parking spaces. Total costs were about 1.5 million Euros. The reconstruction in section 3 was initiated by some shop keepers, residents and a school. It was a long process, and politicians finally aimed for a traffic-calmed shopping street. Section 1 and 2 was predominantly reconstructed because the road administration had experience good results with these types of measures on similar streets. Road safety on the street followed the general development even though the volumes of motor vehicles, cyclists and bus passengers dropped.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day 3,000 -11% +12%

PT passengers / day 3,000 -14% -5%

Average speed 44


Injuries / year 7 +15% +12%



Business (1,000 m2) 184 +1% +2%


Homes 2,600 +2% +1%

Housing price (1,000) 126 +130%

Residents 5,038 +4% +3%

Jobs 1,771 +11% +7%

Unemployed resident 264 0% -11%

Working residents 2,201 +8% +14%

Income 23,883 +14% +17%


Page 64

Description: The 0.76 km of Eschholzstraße is of type A, B and C. Character section 1, 2, 3 and 4 are respectively of subtype C11, B, A22 and A22, but all have retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 21,200 motorised vehicles and 5,000 pedestrians at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B D


B C D


Narrow B C

Map of street case:

The street is 20 meter wide with 12 meter side space and 8 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. There is no median There is about 190 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 150 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 2.6 - +

Street compatibility -



Congestion -


A5.1 Eschholzstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 65


Existing problems: Eschholzstraße is a street in the central parts of Freiburg. There are not many pedestrians and transparency of the street is low. Road safety seems to be the major problem of the street, even though speed is not high. Long-term changes: The tram lines were closed in 1962. Junctions were signalised in the 1960s. In the 1970s the four lane street had parking on both sides and no cycle facilities. Applying cycle facilities first made parking forbidden then in the 1980s car parking on both sides was allowed and the street was reduces to two traffic lanes. Photo of section 1 in 1965, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 21,000


Bicycles / day -

PT passengers / day -

Average speed 43



Accidents / year 47 +10%




Homes -


Residents 6,900 +18%

Jobs -


Working residents - +18%

Income -


Page 66

Description: The 1.00 km of Habsburgerstraße is of type B, C and D. The four character sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 are respectively of subtype C12, B, C11 and C12. Section 1 and 2 has offices and public service in ground floor, where as section 3 has mixed land use and section 4 has retail. There are about 21,500 motorised vehicles and 10,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. The volume of tram passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B C


B C D


Narrow B B

Map of street case:

The street has a wide aiding median. Section 1 and 4 is respectively 25 and 23 meter wide with 9 and 7 meter side space and 16 m carriageway. Section 2 and 3 is 47 and 35 meter wide with 6 and 11 meter side space and 41 and 24 meter carriageway. Section 1 has two traffic lanes and section 2, 2 and 4 has four traffic lanes.. There is about 250 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 8 meter. People may be boarding and alighting trams every 250 meter at the tram stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.5 + +

Accidents 1.4 - -


Noise at footways 70 + -

People per AADT 4.3 + +

Congestion -


A5.2 Habsburgerstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 67


Existing problems: Habsburgerstraße is a street in the central parts of Freiburg. It is rather non-problematic though relatively unsafe and noisy even though speed is low. The street is not transparent. Long-term changes: Some buildings have been modified, demolished and erected, among others a shopping centre in section 1. Habsburgerstraße had extra wide lanes earlier. Since the 1960’s it was classified as federal road with importance for the regional transport. Zebra crossings existed since 1953 at Ludwigstraße and Wölflinstraße (signalised today). Crossing aids for pedestrians were also demanded by citizens in the 1970’s at Jakobi-/Rotlaubstraße and Hauptstraße. Kerbed tram stops with guard railing were built in late 1970’s. The kerbed trams stop at Hauptstraße (section one) was recently made broader. Photo of section 2 in 1960s.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 41







Homes -



Jobs -



Income -


Page 68

Description: The 0.73 km of Schwarzwaldstraße is of type A and C, low intensity street and shopping street. The three character sections of subtype C11 with retail and A21 with offices and public services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 46,500 motorised vehicles and 500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. The volume of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown D E


C C C


Playa E B

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 27 meter wide with 14 meter side space and 13 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. Section 2 and 3 is 35 meter wide with 13-15 meter side space and 20-22 m carriageway with four traffic lanes. The street has a wide aiding median in all sections. There is about 180 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 9 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 360 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 2.2 - +


Noise at footways 72 + + +


Congestion -


A5.3 Schwarzwaldstraße, unchanged street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 69


Existing problems: Schwarzwaldstraße is a radial arterial in the outer parts of Freiburg. It has massive problems in terms of road safety and noise due to high motor traffic volumes and speeds. There are very few pedestrians in this extremely wide street with very few buildings. Long-term changes: The conservatory was built between 1977-1984 south of the German-French-Gymnasium from 1975. Additionally some changes took place in west of the street, because the area is crossed by a tunnel of the new federal road. Map from 1962:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 45







Homes -



Jobs -



Income -


Page 70

Description: The 0.46 km of Bismarckallee has two character sections. Section one has offices and public service as primary land use in ground floor, whereas section two has retail and services. There are about 27,500 motorised vehicles, 4,000 bus passengers, 1,000 cyclists and 7,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

E C C


C D B


Unknown B B

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 102 meter wide with 48 meter side space and 54 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and a wide aiding median. Section 2 is 45 meter wide with 33 meter side space and 12 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and barrier median. There is about 340 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied every 6 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 170 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 3.8 +

Street compatibility -2,766 -

Noise at footways 70 +


Congestion -0.17 +


A5.4 Bismarckallee, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 71


Existing problems: Even though Bismarckallee is located right next to the central bus station in the heart of Freiburg, movement efficiency and people movement per AADT is poor. Doorway open to the public are few per running meter. The street struggle with a poor safety record and is rather noise and incompatible. Congestion may occur even though the high speeds do suggest otherwise. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The closing of tram lines allowed for widening the side space next to the railway and rearranging parking, footways, cycle paths, etc. The street was widened from two to four traffic lanes in section 1. Total road construction costs were about 23 million Euros. Widening Bismarckallee was meant to relief the inner ring Rotteckring/Werdering and to create an ‘enlargement’ of the inner city next to the railway area. Several buildings were built at the same time, e.g. a new main station and concert hall. Also a parking garage of 900 cars below the street was constructed. The project was implemented 1991-95, but the debate already started in the 1970s. Several designs were made and discussed by citizens, politicians, administration, etc. The final lay-out was decided by municipal council in 1987. Today, road safety is worse and there are fewer cyclists. Motorised traffic did go up as planed.



Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 27,500 6%


Bicycles / day 1,000 -37%


Average speed 48


Injuries / year 39 +117%

Accidents / year 43 -19%




Homes -


Residents 1,093

Jobs -


Working residents -

Income -


Page 72

Description: The 0.98 km of Carl-Kistner-Straße is of type B, C and E. Character section 1 is of subtype C11 and has mixed land use, whereas section 2 and 3 has offices and public services as primary land use in ground floor. There are about 10,000 motorised vehicles and 5,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of tram passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B C


B A D


Optimal D B

Map of street case:

The street is 20-24 meter wide and has two traffic lanes. Section 1 and 2 has 8-10 m side space and about 12 m carriageway including the tram lines. Section 3 has 18 m side space including the tram lines and only 6 meter carriageway. Section 1 has a wide aiding median. There is about 490 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 5 meter. People may be boarding and alighting trams every 330 meter at the tram stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 0.1 - - - -

Accidents 0.5 - - -


Noise at footways 64 - - - -

People per AADT 4.8 + + +

Congestion -


A5.5 Carl-Kistner-Straße, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 73


Existing problems: Carl-Kistner-Straße is a non-problematic district shopping street in outer Freiburg. The speed limit is 30 km/h, but in a part of section 1 it is lower only 20 km/h. It is a safe and calm street, but with many doorways. However, transparency could be higher, i.e. a more active shopping street, and lateral spacing could be lower, i.e. new building could be located on the “empty sites”. Reconstruction and short-term changes: In 2002 the tram was re-implemented in the street. It is a tram line connecting the district Rieselfeld with the city centre. The carriageway was widened in section 1, where the tram line was located on a ghost median. The tram line was located in the side spade in section 2 and 3. Previously all sections had angel parking on both sides and had more trees. The speed limit was lowered. The first ideas to a tram line in Carl-Kistner-Straße were discussed in the 1980s. Freiburg road administration developed the designs, and the policitians made the decision to reconstruct by the end of the 1990s. Time schedule and finance plan were kept during implementation. Motor vehicle flow remained unchanged. Road safety was improved significantly. It is well-known that angel parking is very risky, and the removal of this type of parking may be a prime cause to the improvement in road safety. Noise was slightly reduced.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 37







Homes -


Residents 13,277

Jobs -


Working residents -

Income -


Page 74

Description: The 0.63 km of Sundgauallee has two character sections both with offices and public services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 16,000 motorised vehicles and 500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of tram passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B E


C D D


Optimal C A

Map of street case:

The street is 41-47 meter wide with 13-17 meter side space and 28-30 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and tram lines. Section 1 has a narrow aiding median and section 2 a wide aiding median. There is about 320 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 5 meter. People may be boarding and alighting trams every 630 meter at the tram stop. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.1 -

Accidents 1.1 -


Noise at footways 67 -

People per AADT -

Congestion -


A5.6 Sundgauallee, reconstructed street, Freiburg, Germany


Page 75


Existing problems: Sundgauallee is not an overall problematic radial arterial street in outer Freiburg. However, it is not transparent and has few doorways open to the public and this is probably the causes for a very low number of pedestrians. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The tram line was implemented in the beginning of the 1980s and went on line in 1983. The grass median was already existing when the tram line was implemented. The only changes besides the tram line and consequent changes to junctions were the removal of a pedestrian bridge and two bus stops. The extension of the tram line was discussed in municipal council in the 1950s. The idea was to provide better access to new western districts of Freiburg. Design alternatives were developed by the road administration in the 1960s.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 46


Injuries / year 13

Accidents / year 17




Homes -


Residents 14,367

Jobs -


Working residents -

Income -


Page 76

Description: The 2.31 km of Carrer Barcelona is of type B and C, narrow inactive old street and shopping street. Character section 1, 2 and 3 are respectively of subtype C12, B and C11. Offices and public services are the dominant land use in ground floor. There are about 21,000 motorised vehicles and 4,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B D


D D A


Narrow C D

Map of street case: Section 1 Section 2, 2

The street is 17-24 meter wide with 6-9 meter side space and 12-15 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes. There is no median. There is about 140 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 8 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 390 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured -

Accidents -




Congestion -

Cross sections of street: Section 3 Section 2, 3

A6.1 Carrer Barcelona, unchanged street, Girona, Spain


Page 77


Existing problems: Carrer Barcelona is a radial arterial street going from the outer of to centre of Girona. It has rather many problems with high speed and noise level and a low number of people per AADT. It may also have road safety problems. All this may be some reasons from a low number of doorways open to the public and a low pedestrian flow. Greenery is sporadic. Long-term changes: In the mid 1970s the speed limit was 60 km/h, but now is 50 km/h. Otherwise there have been no changes of built form, street design and traffic control in the past three decades. Photo of section 1 in 1969:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 56


Killed / year 2

Accidents / year 24


Businesses -


Homes -


Residents 1,251

Jobs 323


Working residents -

Income -


Page 78

Description: The 2.07 km of Gran Via is of type C, D and E. Character section one and two are of subtype D11, whereas section three and four respectively are of subtype E and C12. There are about 19,500 motor vehicles and 7,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B C


C B A


Optimal C B

Map of street case:

The street is 40-59 meter wide with 6-17 meter side space and 29-50 meter carriageway with six to eight traffic lanes. Section 1 has a wide aiding median, whereas the other sections have no median. There is about 340 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 8 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 210 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 3.0 + +



People per AADT -

Congestion -

Cross sections of street: Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4

A6.2 Gran Via, unchanged street, Sabadell, Spain


Page 79


Existing problems: The street is a ring arterial street in Sabadell. The street does not have many problems except for road safety and speed. It is a relatively non-problematic street. Long-term changes: New higher buildings have been erected in section 4 since 1975. At that time the speed limit was 60 km/h in all sections. There seems to have been a small reallocation of space from the side space to the carriageway in a few stretches. Photo of character section 4, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 50


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year 53




Homes 2,292



Jobs -


Working residents -

Income -


Page 80

Description: The 0.82 km of carrer Arago is of type C and D, shopping street and metropolis arterial. Character section 1 is of subtype C12 and section 2 of subtype D2. There are about 83,500 motorised vehicles and 9,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown E C


B B A


Narrow C D

Map of street case:

The street is 30 meter wide with 12 meter side space and 18 meter carriageway with six traffic lanes carrying one-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 140 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 9 meter. There are no bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 28.1 + + + +


Noise at footways 74 + + + +

People per AADT -

Congestion -

Cross section of the street:

A6.3 Carrer Arago, reconstructed street, Barcelona, Spain


Page 81


Existing problems: Carrer Arago is a major radial arterial in central Barcelona. The very high volume of motorised vehicles makes the street noisy and very many accidents occur in this street. Road safety and noise are major problems, and the street also only has sporadic greenery. The low speeds indicate that the street is congested. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The construction of the second ring road in Barcelona made it possible to reduce the number of traffic lanes on Arago from 8 to 6, and reallocate this space to widen the footways in both sides of the street from 4 m to 5.8 m. Motor traffic volumes dropped from about 95,000 to the current 83,500 motor vehicles per day. Photo of section 1 before reconstruction:



Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 83,500 -12%


Bicycles / day -


Average speed 35







Homes -


Residents 7,451 0%

Jobs -

Unemployed resident - -52%


Income -


Page 82

Description: The 1.51 km of carrer Marina is of type C and D, shopping street and metropolis arterial. Character section 1, 2 and 3 is respectively of subtype D11, C11 and D2. There are about 32,500 motor vehicles and 8,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown C C


A B A


Optimal C B

Map of street case:

The street is 48-49 meter wide with 7-30 meter side space and 19-41 meter carriageway with four to six traffic lanes. There is a barrier median in section 3, whereas the other sections have no median There is about 280 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 150 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -



People per AADT -

Congestion -


A6.4 Carrer Marina, reconstructed street, Barcelona, Spain


Page 83


Existing problems: Carrer Marina is an arterial in the central parts of Barcelona. It is a relatively non-problematic street with an excellent built form and lots of greenery. However motor traffic volumes and noise could be lower and pedestrian flow could be higher. Reconstruction and short-term changes: A bicycle lane was marked on the side space in section 1 and 2, and on the carriageway in section 3. Bicycle signals and markings were also applied at junctions. Photo of bicycle crossing in section 1:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 30


Injuries / year - -1%

Accidents / year - -7%




Homes -


Residents 5,067 0%

Jobs -

Unemployed resident - -52%


Income -


Page 84

Description: The 0.96 km of avinguda Marti i Pujol is of type C, shopping street. Section 1 is of subtype C11, whereas section 2 and 3 are type C2. There are about 15,500 motorised vehicles and 9,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of bus passengers and cyclists are unknown Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

Unknown B C


A A A


Narrow A D

Map of street case:

The street is 21-25 meter wide with 9-10 meter side space and 12-15 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes. There is no median. There is about 170 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 9 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 190 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -



People per AADT -

Congestion -


A6.5 Avinguda Marti i Pujol, reconstructed street, Badalona, Spain


Page 85


Existing problems: Avinguda Marti i Pujol is an arterial street in the centre of Badalona, which is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia. It is one of the least problematic or sustainable arterial streets of all studied cases. It seems that the only problem is the low amount of greenery. However, the street is also narrow, and therefore may more greenery make it look even narrower. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction was a reallocation of space from the carriageway to footways. In section 1 and 2 the footways were widened by 2 meters and in section 3 they were widened by 4 meters. Several trees were also planted. A new people space or square with wooden benches and trees to provide shade. Ramps at pedestrian crossings were constructed. Restoration of several buildings has taken place since the reconstruction of the street. Photo of character section 2, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day -


Average speed 25


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year -




Homes -


Residents 1,023 -4%

Jobs - +6%

Unemployed resident - +15%


Income -


Page 86

Description: The 1.38 km of Adrianoupoleos is of type A and C, low intensity street and shopping street. Character section 1 and 2 are of subtype C11 with retail and services, and section 3 is of type A12 with predominantly with residential land use in ground floor. There are about 37,000 motorised vehicles, 17,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 2,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D C D


E C A


Narrow E B

Map of street case and cross sections of street:

The street is 20-24 meter wide with 6-11 meter side space and 13-14 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes with one-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 230 meter between the signalised junctions. Parking space for cars is not provided, i.e. parking is prohibited on-street. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 230 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 4.6 + + +





Photo of illegal parking in character section 2:

A7.1 Adrianoupoleos, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 87


Existing problems: Adrianoupoleos is a radial arterial in the outer parts of Thessaloniki. The problems are massive. The extreme high speed is one cause to a health critical noise and road safety level. The presence of pedestrians is low, though it is probably not very pleasing to be there walking around. There is lots of space between buildings. Maybe the street is congested sometimes. Long-term changes: Until the late 1970s there were no signalised junctions in Adrianoupoleos street. During the last decades old 1-2 floors buildings have been replaced by mostly new 4-5 floors buildings. New shopping centres have opened and increased parking demand and illegal parking. Signs with advertisements have spawn on the footways. Photo of footway in character section 3:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 73


Injuries / year 8

Accidents / year 4


Business (number) 131

Business rent / sqm 212

Homes -



Jobs -


Working residents 2,162 +369%

Income -


Page 88

Description: The 0.94 km of Ethnikis Antistasis is of type C, shopping street, and both character sections are of subtype C11 with retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 37,000 motorised vehicles, 15,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 1,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D C D


D B A


Optimal C C


The street is 26-29 meter wide with 12-14 meter side space and 13-16 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes with one-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 190 meter between the signalised junctions. Parking space for cars is not supplied. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 240 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 6.8 + +





Illegal parking and congestion in section 1:

A7.2 Ethnikis Antistasis, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 89


Existing problems: Ethnikis Antistasis is a radial arterial in the outer parts of Thessaloniki. The problems are massive. The extreme speed is one cause to a health critical noise and road safety level. The presence of pedestrians is low, though it is probably not very pleasing to be there walking around. There is low movement efficiency and few people per AADT. The street is congested sometimes. Parking is also a problem. Long-term changes: Until the late 1970s there were no signalised junctions in Adrianoupoleos street. During the last decades old 1-2 floors buildings have been replaced by mostly new 4-5 floors buildings. New commercial activity has appeared including big supermarkets, banks and shopping centres. Photo of bollards to prevent illegal parking:



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 57


Injuries / year 7

Accidents / year 4




Homes -



Jobs -



Income -


Page 90

Description: The 1.12 km of Plastira has two character sections with retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 17,500 motorised vehicles, 6,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 7,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B C


E B A


Playa E B


The street is 10-21 meter wide with 6-7 meter side space and 14 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes with two-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 190 meter between the signalised junctions. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 4 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 160 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.7 +

Accidents 5.3 +



People per AADT 3.4 +

Congestion -0.44 -

Photo of section 2:

A7.3 Plastira, unchanged street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 91


Existing problems: Plastira is an arterial running along the marina of Kalamaria in eastern Thessaloniki. Speed is very high causing lots of noise and possibly poor road safety. Because one side is next to the sea there are lots of empty sites and the street is very wide like a playa. Movement efficiency is low, but there are actually many pedestrians, because the location at sea attracts services like restaurants, cafés, bars and of course people. Transparency is therefore high and there are many doorways open to the public. Long-term changes: Until 1980 there were no signalised junctions in Plastira street. Many shops and services have opened in this street in the past decades. Off-street parking facilities have open next to street during the 1980s and 1990s. Photo on seaside in section 1:



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership 480

Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 68


Injuries / year 7

Accidents / year 4




Homes -



Jobs -


Working residents 662 +369%

Income -


Page 92

Description: The 0.79 km of Egeou is of type C, shopping street, and has two character sections of subtype C11 both with mixed land use in ground floor. There are about 16,000 motorised vehicles, 8,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 2,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B D


C C A


Optimal D B


The street is 20 meter wide with 9 meter side space and 11 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 260 meter between the signalised junctions. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 790 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 6.8 + +



People per AADT -

Congestion -0.64 - - - -

Footway build-out and parking bays, section 2:

A7.4 Egeou, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 93


Existing problems: Egeou is an arterial street in the commercial centre of Kalamaria. The street suffers from severe road safety problems and even though its’ in the city centre there are not many pedestrians. Movement efficiency is low and lateral spacing is big. Otherwise it is a relatively non-problematic street. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction included reallocation of space from carriageway to parking bays and footway build-outs at both sides of the street. The result was a reduction of traffic lanes from 4 to 2, but parked cars occupied nearly always two of traffic lanes prior to reconstruction. The lane width before was 2.75 m and after 4 m The reconstruction also included reconstruction of footways and applying warning signs and markings. The purpose of the project, which was completed in 1998, was to reorganise traffic and parking. Road safety did improve about 20-25 per cent due to the reconstruction taken into account the general development. Motor vehicle flow remained at the same level.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 48





Businesses (number) 84 0%


Homes - +8%


Residents 3,897 +8%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 94

Description: The 0.75 km of Sofouli is of type A and E, low intensity street and suburban residential arterial. Character section 1 is of type E with offices and public services, whereas section 2 is of subtype A12 with retail and services in ground floor. There are about 18,000 motorised vehicles, 4,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 5,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B C


E C A


Optimal E B


Section 1 is 37 meter wide with 12 meter side space and 25 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. Section 2 is 31 meter wide with 14 meter side space and 17 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving one-way traffic. There is no median. There is about 250 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied every 6 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 170 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 3.9 + + +



People per AADT -


Photo of traffic calming in section 1:

A7.5 Sofouli, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 95


Existing problems: Sofouli is an arterial street next to the sea and connects Kalamaria with eastern Thessaloniki. It has problems with high speeds and poor road safety and a high noise level. Because one side is next to the sea there are lots of empty sites. Movement efficiency is low, but there are actually many pedestrians. Transparency is high and the greenery does influence streetscape. Reconstruction and short-term changes: Sofouli was until 1995 a street two-way traffic. In order to increase capacity and reduce delays Sofouli and a parallel street was changed into a pair of one-way streets. Implementation caused some problems such as illegal parking on both sides of the street resulting in one usable traffic lane, which did not meet the capacity and delay objectives. Many traffic control measures were implemented in order to improve road safety, e.g. lowering of speed limit from 50 to 40 km/h and pavement markings. Some junctions were signalised. Pedestrian rams were constructed. Road safety improved considerably due to the reconstruction. The project was part of the traffic management plan. After municipal committee approval the project was in public hearing for 10 days. More public information took place both before and after implementation.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 62







Homes - +8%


Residents 2,330 +8%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 96

Description: The 1.1 km of Ikonomidi is of type A, low intensity street, and has two character sections of subtype A22. However, section 1 has a mixed land use, whereas section 2 has predominantly residential land use in ground floor. There are about 9,000 motorised vehicles, 7,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

C A E


C C B


Optimal E B

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 19 meter wide with 11 meter side space and 8 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving one-way traffic. Section 2 is 19 meter wide with 6 meter side space and 13 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes with two-way traffic and barrier median. There is about 280 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 8 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 550 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 4.0 + + +




Congestion -0.60 - - - -

Photo of guard rails in front of school, section 1:

A7.6 Ikonomidi, reconstructed street, Kalamaria, Greece


Page 97


Existing problems: Ikonomidi is the parallel arterial street to Sofouli, which connects Kalamaria with eastern Thessaloniki. Ikonomidi has low traffic volumes, but rather high speeds and still problems with road safety. There are very few pedestrians in Ikonomidi and several empty sites. Otherwise the street is non-problematic. Reconstruction and short-term changes: Until 1995 Ikonomidi had two-way traffic. Due to traffic capacity problems on the parallel Sofouli, Ikonomidi was made one-way. This residential street did then get more traffic and two new bus routes. In order to eliminate traffic and safety impacts the carriageway was reduce from 10.5 to 8 m and parking bays were constructed. The pavement was changed in front of a school, where also a signalised pedestrian crossing and guard rails were implemented. Two junctions were signalised and humps were constructed at side street approaches. Footways were reconstructed with new materials and design and new lighting poles were installed in section 1, which raised the lighting degree of the street. The reconstruction process was the same as for Sofouli.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 52



Accidents / year 3 +200% -6%




Homes - +8%


Residents 4,958 +8%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 98

Description: The 0.87 km of Brixton Road is type C, D and F. The four character sections are of subtype D12, C12 and F, and have different land use; residential, retail and services and offices and public service, however never mixed land use in ground floor. There are about 39,000 motorised vehicles, 51,000 bus passengers, 1,500 cyclists and 35,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A C A


Unknown B A


Optimal A B


The street is about 30 meter wide with 9 meter side space and 21 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. It has a special traffic gyratory and a narrow aiding median along some stretches. There is about 180 meter between the signalised junctions. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 22 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 60 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -


Noise at footways -


Congestion -


A8.1 Brixton Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom


Page 99


Existing problems: Brixton road is a radial arterial between Brixton south of London and the centre of London. It is a non-problematic street with many qualities. Motor vehicle volumes are though a bit high. Movement efficiency is very good and there are lots of pedestrians flowing in the street. The streetscape is well-designed and it is influenced by greenery. There are many doorways open to the public and the street appears transparent. Long-term changes: Motor vehicle flow has increased about 27 per cent during the past two decades, whereas the bicycle flow has remained at the same level. Photo of character section 3:



Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 33,500 +27%

Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 1,000 +2%


Average speed -

85th percentile speed -

Injuries / year 55

Accidents / year -

Noise at footways -

Business (1,000 m2) 88


Homes (1.000 m2) 20


Residents 12,031

Jobs -



Income -


Page 100

Description: The 2.14 km of Old Kent Road is overall of type A (subtype A21), shopping street with a mixed land use in ground floor. The six character sections are, however, very different in every way. Land use varies from residential to mixed land use to retail and services. There are about 40,000 motorised vehicles, 35,000 bus passengers, 500 cyclists and 4,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

C C D


Unknown C C


Wide C C

Map of street case:

The street is 23-150 meter wide with 15-136 m carriageway with four to eleven traffic lanes. But the side space is surprisingly uniform with a width of 7-14 meter. The street has a barrier median except section 5 and 6. There is about 230 meter between the signalised junctions. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 74 meter. Parking is allowed only on section 2 and 3. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 120 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -


Noise at footways -

People per AADT -

Congestion -


A8.2 Old Kent Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom


Page 101


Existing problems: Old Kent Road is not non-problematic nor is it problematic to any greater extent. It is a wide street with few pedestrians and rather many motor vehicles. But the street differs from section to section to a great extent. Photo of character section 5, two-way traffic:




Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 500


Average speed -


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year -

Noise at footways -


Business rent price 250

Homes -


Residents 8,257

Jobs -



Income -


Page 102

Description: The 7.31 km of A503 (Camden, Isledon, Seven Sisters and Parkhurst roads) has four character sections. Land use in ground floor varies from residential on section 1 and 4 to mixed land use on section 4 and retail and services on section 2. There are about 32,500 motorised vehicles, 27,000 bus passengers and 500 cyclists travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of pedestrians are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

B B Unknown


C Unknown Unknown


Optimal Unknown B

Map of street case:

The street is 16-23 meter wide with 5-8 meter side space and 12-15 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving one-way traffic. There is no median. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -


Noise at footways -

People per AADT -

Congestion -


A8.3 Seven Sisters Road, unchanged street, London, United Kingdom


Page 103


Existing problems: A503 or Seven Sisters Road is a road gyratory with two one-way traffic streets and is a radial arterial running from northeast to the centre of London. We only have little information about the street, but it seems to be rather non-problematic. Photo of character section 3, one-way traffic:




Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 500


Average speed 45


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year -

Noise at footways -


Business rent price 350

Homes -


Residents 7,132

Jobs -



Income -


Page 104

Description: The 1.45 km of Camden Town (Camden High Street, Camden Road and Bayham Street) has five character sections and all sections have retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 24,500 motorised vehicles, 21,000 bus passengers, 1,000 cyclists and 53,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

B B A


Unknown A A


Optimal A D


The street is 19-27 meter wide with 7-14 meter side space and 7-20 meter carriageway with two through-going traffic lanes serving one-way traffic. There is no median. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 210 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -


Noise at footways -

People per AADT -

Congestion 0.42 + +


A8.4 Camden Town, reconstructed street, London, United Kingdom


Page 105

Photo of section 1, partly pedestrianised:

Existing problems: Camden Town is a pair of one-way traffic streets making up a gyratory. It is located north of the city centre of London. It has relatively few problems, however, greenery is sporadic and the street is often congested. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The street was changed from two to one-way traffic, road markings were changed, and free short-stay off-peak parking bays were introduced. Before public consultation was embarked on, the local press reported that the local authority was proposing to pedestrianise sections of the street. The local council continued development work, building a wide area traffic model and the design proposal. Faced with difficulty of achieving a consensus regarding scale of pedestrianisation or a “bus only” street, etc, the council changed strategy to a gradual change. Two of the four traffic lanes were removed from section one. Other small-scale changes were experimented with but then removed. There was also an upgrade of surface and street furniture quality. Motor vehicle flow dropped by 19 per cent and bicycle flow increased 12 per cent.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 1,000 +12%


Average speed -


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year -

Noise at footways -


Business rent / sqm 1,000

Homes -


Residents 2,032

Jobs -



Income -


Page 106

Description: The 2.30 km of Marylebone Road is of type D, metropolis arterial, and has five character sections of subtype D12 and D2. Land use in ground floor is dominated by offices and public services except for section 2, which have mixed land use. There are about 77,500 motorised vehicles, 35,500 bus passengers, 1,000 cyclists and 20,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D E B


Unknown D A


Narrow C B


The street is 30-50 meter wide with 8-12 meter side space and 22-40 meter carriageway with four general traffic lanes and two bus lanes. There is a barrier median. There is about 140 meter between the signalised junctions. Parking spaces for cars are not supplied, i.e. parking is prohibited. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -


Noise at footways -

People per AADT -

Congestion 0.60 + + + +

High buildings north of section 5, one-way traffic:

A8.5 Marylebone Road, reconstructed street, London, United Kingdom


Page 107


Existing problems: Marylebone Road is one of the most trafficked radial arterial streets in London. There are major problems with large traffic volumes, congestion and poor movement efficiency. There are relatively few doorways open to the public. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction involved turning two of the six general traffic lanes into bus / taxi / cycle lanes operating 24 hours a day. The change was primarily introduced using thermoplastic and red coloured surfacing. The reconstruction was motivated by the London Bus Initiative, an improvement programme along key bus routes in the capital. At the eastern end of the street sit Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. Here major construct was taking place to provide the Channel Tunnel Rail Link terminal and improve the stations. The bus lanes were introduced to minimise any disruption arising from these works by allowing buses to bypass queuing traffic. Bus lanes were introduced in August 2001. Their introduction coincided with a traffic signal failure giving rise to long traffic queues during the first week and commentaries in media. Transport for London’s evaluation of the scheme states the eastbound traffic flows decreased by 5 per cent and westbound by 10 to 15 per cent. Taxi volumes increased.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 500


Average speed -


Injuries / year -

Accidents / year -

Noise at footways -

Business (1,000 m2) 300


Homes -


Residents 6,261

Jobs -



Income -


Page 108

Description: The 1.15 km of Amiralsgatan is of type A and C, low intensity street and shopping street. Character section 1, 2 and 3 are respectively of subtype C12, A22 and C12. There are about 20,500 motorised vehicles, 12,500 bus passengers, 1,000 cyclists and 1,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

D B E


C C A


Narrow D C

Map of street case:

The street is 24-26 meter wide with 6-9 meter side space and 17-18 meter carriageway with four to five traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. There is a barrier median. There is about 230 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 33 meter. Parking is prohibited on section 2 and 3. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -

Street compatibility 3,058 + + +



Congestion -

Cross sections of street (1 at top, 3 at bottom):

A9.1 Amiralsgatan, unchanged street, Malmö, Sweden


Page 109


Existing problems: Amiralsgatan is a radial arterial street south of the city centre of Malmö. The street is rather problematic with poor road safety and movement efficiency, a high noise level and very few pedestrians. The street presents it self as being narrow. Speed, doorways and greenery is at medium level, i.e. not very problematic and nor very good. Long-term changes: There have been a few changes regarding parking regulation and bus stops / lanes during the past three decades. No changes have occurred to buildings. The motor vehicle traffic flow has dropped about 4 per cent during the past decades, but noise has not changed. The reason for the dramatic increase in injuries is due to change of statistics, i.e. use of hospital records instead of police recorded injuries. The change in road safety has followed the general trend in Malmö.



Today’s number


Change in city



Bicycles / day 1,000


Average speed 49



Accidents / year 33

Noise at footways 72 0%



Homes -


Residents 8,232 +28% 0%

Jobs 1,218 +6%

Unemployed resident 422 +2,000%

Working residents 2,196 -19%

Income 9,325


Page 110

Description: The 1.23 km of Nobelvägen is of type A, C and E, and has five character sections of subtype A22 (section 1), C12 (section 2 and 3) and E (section 5). There are about 24,500 motorised vehicles, 4,000 bus passengers, 1,000 cyclists and 2,500 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

E B D


C C A


Optimal D D

Map of street case:

The street is 30-34 meter wide with 8-12 meter side space and 22 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and a barrier median. There is about 310 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 7 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 180 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -

Street compatibility 2,375 + +


People per AADT 1.4 - - - -



A9.2 Nobelvägen, unchanged street, Malmö, Sweden


Page 111


Existing problems: Nobelvägen is an inner ring arterial street close to the centre of Malmö. It has major problems regarding many issues. Few pedestrians and poor movement efficiency makes it a less sustainable street. Road safety is also poor and speed is rather high. The street is perhaps congested in a few minutes during the day. Greenery is sporadic. Long-term changes: At the beginning of the 1970s Nobelvägen was part of E6 connecting to the motorway system. In 1976 when the Inner Ring motorway was built much of the through traffic was relocated. This is the prime reason for a major drop in motor vehicle flow. Minor changes like new pedestrian crossings and slightly wider median strip have been made since then. Despite this major drop in motor vehicle flow the road safety has worsen. Taking into account the general development (including the swift from police recorded injuries to hospital recordings), road safety is actually about 15 per cent worse today.



Today’s number


Change in city





Average speed 49



Accidents / year 38




Homes -


Residents 6,313 +3% 0%

Jobs 1,125 +6%



Income 9,073


Page 112

Description: The 0.83 km of Bergsgatan is of type C, shopping street. Character section 1, 2 and 3 is respectively of subtype C12, C12 and C2. There are about 15,000 motorised vehicles, 21,000 bus passengers, 2,500 cyclists and 1,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A B E


Unknown A A


Narrow B D

Map of street case:

The street is 30 meter wide with 8 meter side space and 22 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes and a barrier median. There is about 210 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 9 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 1.2 + -

Accidents -

Street compatibility 1,230 - +



Congestion -


A9.3 Bergsgatan, reconstructed street, Malmö, Sweden


Page 113


Existing problems: Bergsgatan is an inner ring arterial street close to the centre of Malmö. There hardly are any pedestrians in the street and therefore is the number of people per AADT low. Greenery is sporadic. Problems with road safety and noise are minor. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction consisted of footway widening at some places and footway build-outs at every intersection. All footway build-outs were part of pedestrian crossings with zebra stripes. Two of pedestrian crossings were signalised. The median was widened from being traffic islands of about 1 m to be a real 4 m wide median with trees. The reconstruction took place 1986-87. The situation for pedestrians improved, but motor vehicle speeds increased. Motor vehicle flow dropped by 12 per cent, which is the same drop in terms of road safety (injuries) when the general trend is taken into consideration. The municipal traffic planning unit pronounced the needs for change; parking, poor junction design and pedestrian crossing options. Speed was measured. There was some contact with residents of the area after the draft design had been developed. Costs about 0.25 million Euro excluding the signalisation.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership



Average speed -



Accidents / year 20




Homes -


Residents 5,406 +49% 0%

Jobs 1,801 +6%



Income 9,281


Page 114

18 m 6,5 m 8 m

17 m

Ham

ngatan

Teatergatan

~ 12 m

9 m 9 m 24 m

Nybron

Ham

ngatan

The center of the

roundabout

5 m 11 m 9 m 6 m 11 m

8 m

Ham

ngatan

Teatergatan

Park

~ 9 m

River

10 m 5 m

8 m

Ham

ngatan

Wooden

bridge

3 m 8,5 m

River

3

2

1

Description: The 0.57 km of Hamngatan has three character sections overall with mixed land use, however, section 1 and 2 is dominated by offices and public service, whereas retail and services are the predominant land use in ground floor in section 3 . There are about 12,000 motorised vehicles, 4,000 bus passengers, 500 cyclists and 1,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

E B D


A D A


N/A N/A B

Map and cross sections before reconstruction:

The street is 17-23 meter wide with 8-14 meter side space and 9 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes and a wide aiding median. There are no signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. Parking spaces for cars are not provided and there are no bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -




Congestion -0.33 -

Map and cross sections after reconstuction:

A9.4 Hamngatan, reconstructed street, Eskildstuna, Sweden

3

2

1 8 m

Hamngatan

River

3 m 20 m 8 m 9 m

Teatergatan

~ 9 m

22,5 m

37 m 6 m 8 m

17 m

Hamngatan

Teatergatan

43 m

Nybron

~ 12 m

18,5 m 5 m

8 m

Hamngatan

River

2 m


Page 115

Photo of character section 1-3, two-way traffic: Existing problems: Hamngatan is an inner ring arterial street surrounding the centre of Eskildstuna. Besides having few pedestrians and poor movement efficiency leading to few people per AADT, the street does not suffer from any real problems. The number of doorways open to the public is low, but this is mainly because the river is the streets’ neighbour on one side. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction reduced the number of traffic lanes from four to two. Space was reallocated to new and wider cycle paths and footways. The previous signalised junction in section 2 was changed into a roundabout. There was put much emphasis on street furniture and aesthetics. New benches, careful designs, etc, was a big element in the project that should give people of the city a more pleasant access to the river. Motor vehicle flow dropped, but only marginally compared to the general trend in Eskildstuna. Bicycle flow increased. Speed dropped about 20-25 per cent when the general development is taken into account. Road safety improved about 60-70 per cent due to the reconstruction. A design competition was held as part of the project. Six alternative design options were developed. There was no public involvement. The total costs were 5 million Euro.


Today’s number


Change in city

Motor vehicles / day 12,000 -16% -13%

Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day 500 +1733% -11%


Average speed 30 -27% -4%

85th percentile speed 37 -24% -6%



Noise at footways 67 +3%

Business (1,000 m2) 32 0%


Homes -


Residents -

Jobs -


Working residents -

Income -


Page 116

Description: The 1.7 km of Regementsgatan is of type C, shopping street, and has one character section of subtype C12 with retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor. There are about 9,000 motorised vehicles and 8,500 bus passengers travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Volumes of cyclists and pedestrians are unknown. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

C A Unknown


A B A


Narrow B B

Map of street case:

The street is 30 meter wide with 22 meter side space and 8 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. There is a narrow aiding median. There is about 360 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 6 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 180 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents -



People per AADT -

Congestion -


A9.5 Regementsgatan, reconstructed street, Malmö, Sweden


Page 117


Existing problems: Regementsgatan is a radial arterial west of but close to the city centre of Malmö. It is a non-problematic street. Reconstruction and short-term changes: Five intersections were provided with speed cushions to ensure a maximum speed of 30 km/h (85th percentile). The cushions were combined with lateral shifts in the carriageway. The width of the carriageway was narrowed to two traffic lanes each 3.5 m wide with one meter median instead of 16 m before, which included parking in both sides of the street and a 1 m wide median. The costs were 0.5 million Euro. Half of the costs were paid by the state. Speed dropped tremendously and so did also motor vehicle flow. A research team measured the number of serious conflicts, which dropped 24 per cent – almost the same drop as for vehicle flow. Residents had for several complained about road safety and high traffic volume. Lund University was looking for an arterial to equip with special speed reducing measures. The public was involved by being a part of a reference group including the media, residents, youngsters and shopkeepers of the area. Traffic researchers were also part of this reference group. The reconstruction took place 2000-2001.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day -


Average speed -

85th percentile speed 27 -52%

Injuries / year 16





Homes 3,408


Residents 4,885 -24% 0%

Jobs - +6%



Income 12,588


Page 118

Description: The 0.92 km of Amial is of type A and B, low intensity street and narrow inactive old street. Character section 1, 2 and 4 are of subtype A11, whereas section 3 is of type B. Offices and public services are the dominating land use in ground floor in all sections. There are about 16,000 motorised vehicles, 20,500 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 6,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A B C


B B E


Narrow A D

Map and cross sections of street case:

The street is 12-19 meter wide with 4-11 meter side space and 8-9 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. There is no median. There are no signalised junctions and lighting degree is normal. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 115 meter. Parking is only allowed in section 3, which is wider than the other sections. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 100 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 1.0 - -



People per AADT 6.9 + + + +



A10.1 Rua do Amial, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal


Page 119


Existing problems: Amial is a radial arterial street north of the city centre of Porto. It is a relatively non-problematic street. However, it is not particular transparent and only has sporadic greenery. Long-term changes: Some 4-5 storey buildings have been erected in section 2 and 3. In section 4 has six buildings been demolished due to the construction of an access road to newly built ring motorway. A park was also created in this relation. The speed limit has been reduced from 60 to 50 km/h. Photo of character section 4, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 35


Injuries / year 18

Accidents / year 51




Homes 250


Residents - +21%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 120

Description: The 1.32 km of Fernão Magalhães is of type A, C and D. Character section 1 is of subtype C11 with retail and services as dominating land use in ground floor, section 2 is of type D11 with offices and public services and section 3 is residential of type A21. There are about 22,500 motorised vehicles, 14,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 3,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

C B C


C C E


Optimal A B

Map of street case:

The street is 25-29 meter wide with 5-10 meter side space and 15-24 meter carriageway with four traffic lanes. There is a wide aiding median in section 1 and 3. Section 2 has no median.. There is about 660 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 10 meter. Parking is prohibited in section 3. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 130 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 0.5 - - -






A10.2 Avenida Fernào Magalhães, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal


Page 121


Existing problems: Fernão Magalhães is a radial arterial street in the outer parts of Porto. It is a relatively non-problematic street. However, transparency is poor. There occur many accidents in the street, but that is very general in Porto and Portugal. Long-term changes: In the 1980s there did not exist footways on the east side of the street. Some buildings have been built during the past two decades. The speed limit has been reduced from 60 km/h to 50 km/h. Photo of character section 3, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 49


Injuries / year 62

Accidents / year 124




Homes 296


Residents - -12%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 122

Description: The 1.10 km of Monte dos Burgos is of type A and B, low intensity street and narrow inactive old street. Section 1, 2 and 3 is respectively of subtype A11, B and A21 and has mixed land use, offices and public services, and residences as predominant land use in ground floor. There are about 11,500 motorised vehicles, 19,000 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 3,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A B C


C B E


Optimal A D

Map of street case:

The street is 10-14 meter wide with 3-5 meter side space and 7-9 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes serving two-way traffic. There is on median. There are no signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 29 meter. Parking is prohibited in section 3. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 0.7 - -






A10.3 Rua do Monte dos Burgos, unchanged street, Porto, Portugal


Page 123


Existing problems: Monte dos Burgos is a radial arterial street in the outer parts of Porto. It suffers problems with noise and is possibly congested a few minutes during the day. Transparency is low and greenery is sporadic. The street is otherwise without any major problems. Long-term changes: Due to the construction of the ring motorway three buildings have been demolished in section 2. Several buildings have been constructed along the street in section 3, which now has many more businesses. The speed limit has been lowered from 60 to 50 km/h. Photo of character section 3, two-way traffic:



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 44


Injuries / year 30

Accidents / year 35




Homes 291


Residents - -1%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 124

Description: The 1.08 km of Campo Alegre is of type A, low intensity street. Character section 1 is of subtype A21 with residential land use dominating ground floor. Section 2 is of type A11 with offices and public services as primary land use. There are about 14,500 motorised vehicles, 22,500 bus passengers, less than 500 cyclists and 5,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A B D


B C D


Optimal A B

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 18 meter wide with 8 meter side space and 10 meter carriageway with three traffic lanes. Section 2 is 28 meter wide with 15 meter side space and 13 meter carriageway with three traffic lanes. There is no median. There is about 360 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is poor. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 4 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 140 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared




Accidents 0.7 - -

Street compatibility 17,389 + + + +





A10.4 Rua do Campo Alegre, reconstructed street, Porto, Portugal


Page 125


Existing problems: Campo Alegre is a radial street running from the vest to the city centre of Porto. It is a street with no major problems. However, transparency and the number of pedestrians are low. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction was an application of one bus lane from the district called Foz to Porto city centre. Some bus stops were closed in order to get faster bus services. The implementation of the bus lane took place 1999-2000. The basic idea was to provide higher travel speed to buses in this otherwise occationally congested street. Public involvement was not part of the project. The project was planned by the public transport planning authority, but paid by the overall road administration. Motor vehicle flow has dropped by 7 per cent. Road safety has worsen about 20 per cent due to the bus lane when the general trend is taken into account. The project introduced some discontent among other street users, especially car drivers.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day <500 0%


Average speed 41







Homes -


Residents - -6%

Jobs -



Income -


Page 126

Description: The 0.97 km of Restauração is of type A and B, low intensity street and narrow inactive old street. Character section 1 and 2 is of type B, whereas section 3 is of subtype A11. Offices and public services dominate land use in ground floor in all sections. There are about 6,000 motorised vehicles, 27,500 bus passengers, <500 cyclists and 3,000 pedestrians travelling along the street at the busiest point on an average day. Core descriptors:

Movement efficiency


Presence of people

A A D


C B D


Narrow B C

Map of street case:

Section 1 is 12 meter wide with 6 meter side space and 6 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. Section 2 and 3 is 18 meter wide with 10-12 meter side space and 6-7 meter carriageway with two traffic lanes. There is no median. There is about 980 meter between the signalised junctions and lighting degree is good. A parking space for cars is supplied on-street every 13 meter. People may be boarding and alighting buses every 490 meter at the bus stops. Performance indicators:

Indicator Compared



Killed and injured 0.0 - - -

Accidents 0.2 - -






A10.5 Rua do Restauração, reconstructed street, Porto, Portugal


Page 127


Existing problems: Restauração is an arterial street in the centre of Porto. It is a fairly non-problematic street, only suffering from a low transparency and possibly therefore a low number of pedestrians. The street is narrow and more greenery would probably make its appearance even narrower. Reconstruction and short-term changes: The reconstruction was a major change of the entire cross section. The tram line was relocated and made it possible to create footways and parking spaces at many places, where there before was none. The side space has generally increase about 1.6 m in width. Carriageway surfacing was cobblestones prior to reconstruction. Today it is asphalt, and this has most probably reduced the noise level in the street. Street lighting was also renewed and the lighting degree was increased. New greenery was implemented. The project was implemented by an independent entity called Porto 2001, which was part of the European Capital of Culture. There was held a design competition. A costs overrun of about 40 per cent took place. The implementation had a positive effect on road safety. The evaluation shows that the scheme reduced the number of injuries and accidents by 50 per cent, however, the number of accidents is pretty low, so this result is only indicative.



Today’s number


Change in city


Vehicle ownership -

Bicycles / day <500


Average speed 43







Homes -


Residents - -25%

Jobs -



Income -

Documents

D2 European Arterial Streets - Trafitec d2 - arterial streets... · A8.1 Brixton Road, unchanged street, London, ... D2 European Arterial Streets is the final deliverable of work