This week, NACTO released a preview of its Urban Street Design Guidebook, a document meant to assist local governments in designing their streets on the principle that they're spaces for people and commerce as well as arteries for traffic.
Published to coincide with the start of the annual National Association of City Transportation Officials' Designing Cities conference, the guide [PDF] "documents the design principles and strategies that the nation's largest cities are adopting to confront new and growing demands on their streets," says Ray H. LaHood, Secretary of the US Department of Transportation, and conference keynote speaker.
He continues: "[f]rom Bus Rapid Transit to bikeways and public seating, the guide showcases a new model for streets that work better for cities and the people who live, work, and own businesses in them. And not just better in terms of livability--as the data that accompanied today's release indicates, this model is better in terms of business income, jobs and economic growth."
This week's release only provides an overview of the strategies necessary for transforming our streets to suit the needs of 21st Century cities, the full document is slated to be completed next summer.
FULL STORY: Street Design 101: New Guidebook for Cities Released
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research