Evolution of Urban Roadway Design Approaches

The approach and practice of urban roadway design in North America has evolved on the basis of research and experiences for higher speed rural style highways that form part of a national or regional transportation system. The various design guidelines that have been developed over past decades evolved out of a need to develop efficient, effective and safe highway systems. Early examples of such guidelines (AASHO/AASHTO, CGRA/RTAC/TAC etc.) focused largely on the technical issues of vehicular travel. This led to the use of functional classifications that dictated design speed, design vehicle, access control, levels of service and related design considerations. From the late 1970s onward, there has been a distinct shift in the approach taken towards roadway design, particularly in increasingly more congested urban areas. Since that time there has been considerable attention paid to a host of factors that had up to that point had been given less attention by roadway designers. This included issues such as noise, air quality, speeding, shortcutting, community severance, other travel modes (transit, pedestrians, and cyclists) as well as urban design, public realm and place-making considerations. The language of urban road design in 2014 is now permeated by words and phrases like “traffic calming”, “context sensitive design”, “multi-modal design”, “complete streets”, “green roads”, “sustainable transportation” and “pedestrian oriented” design. The general public is demanding much more of transportation engineers than they did in the 60s and 70s. This has led to increased complexity in the design process, its objectives and the design parameters that form part of that process. This paper describes the evolution in the urban roadway design process and the related parameters. This evolution is described through a comparison of historical approaches with more contemporary practices and attitudes. The paper highlights emergent methodologies that reflect the changes from historical practice and outlines the influences from other jurisdictions and other disciplines.

• Record URL:
  http://conf.tac-atc.ca/english/annualconference/tac2014/s-30/shaheen.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)

  401-1111 Prince of Wales Drive
  Ottawa, Ontario  Canada 
• Authors:
  • Shaheen, H
• Conference:
  • Transportation 2014: Past, Present, Future - 2014 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada // Transport 2014 : Du passé vers l'avenir - 2014 Congrès et Exposition de 'Association des transports du Canada
• Publication Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 1 PDF file, 356 KB, 20p.
• Monograph Title: Transportation 2014: Past, Present, Future - 2014 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada // Transport 2014 : Du passé vers l'avenir - 2014 Congrès et Exposition de 'Association des transports du Canada

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conferences; Cyclists; Design; Drivers; Environmental protection; Highways; History; Layout; Methodology; Pedestrians; Policy; Safety; Sustainable development; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• ITRD Terms: 8018: Canada; 8525: Conference; 1742: Cyclist; 9011: Design (overall design); 1772: Driver; 2444: Environment protection; 2755: Highway; 9096: History; 2885: Layout; 9102: Method; 1733: Pedestrian; 173: Policy; 1665: Safety; 2427: Sustainability; 313: Urban area
• Subject Areas: Design; History; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Policy; Safety and Human Factors; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01553384
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)
• Files: ITRD, TAC
• Created Date: Feb 13 2015 4:29PM