Urban Street Design: A New Engineering Approach

In order to promote pedestrian mobility the design of urban streets becomes everyday more important and, at the same time, more complex. An urban street should be a multifunctional space where three different means of transport (cars, public transport and pedestrians) may live (or at least survive) together. The available space needs to be organised according to the different requirements of road users. A consistent design should induce users to behaviours “legal”, predictable and at the same time comfortable and safe. Therefore understanding and taking into account users, and in particular pedestrians behaviour, becomes crucial to the design of urban streets. Common design practices are aimed at reaching “levels of service ” as high as possible for all the involved classes of users, this is achieved trough the use of more or less innovative techniques, such as separation of flows, traffic calming devices, enforcement, traffic signs etc. which, depending on the situation, may be more or less effective. It is therefore very important to understand where, when and, in case, which design techniques is the most suitable to be used in each particular case, taking into account the different users needs, behavioural patterns, and the characteristics of the surrounding environment