Streets & Highways Design
Is There Life Beyond the five-lane strip? No aspect of the design arts has greater impact on the lives of Alabama residents and visitors than the streets and highways we use. But it is easy to take the role of design here for granted. Isn’t it all ‘just engineering’?
Engineering is design. But when the layout and character of public streets and highways is confined to a narrow, functional scope without the contributions of planners, traffic planners, landscape architects and others, the results can be grim.
It is no accident that the graceful, curving parkways leading into Inverness, The Colonnade, Meadowbrook, Highland Lakes and other large developments along U.S. 280 south of Birmingham were part of master plans prepared by landscape architects in conjunction with engineers. The views across lakes, across valleys and into woods are an artfully choreographed experience. In contrast, U.S. 280 from I-459 south is a failure of design, not just in the poorly functioning connection with the interstate, but in the fact that land use and the extra demands of development were never addressed. The highway was planned only within the right-of-way.
But a great deal of suburban growth, and the transportation networks that generate it, just happens. A highway is widened to four lanes, attracts commercial strip development, turns ugly and congested – and then gets five-laned with a central turn lane. Is this the only way to grow?
No, it is not. Despite the sense of inevitability, a truly comprehensive approach to the design of streets and highways should involve the landscape setting, people on foot or bicycles, as well as in cars, the adjoining land uses, as well as the capacity and function.
For better or worse, daily life is impacted greatly by where we drive or walk. It takes strong leadership and some fresh thinking, but the way to ‘better’ has never been such a clear choice.
There are many new initiatives in this field. Developers, as well as towns and cities, are looking for better options than the congested, time-consuming, frustrating suburban strip. Our “Streets & Highways Design” survey this issue includes:
- “Pattern Matters” – A critique of random growth via strips and subdivisions and what can work better
- “The Parkway Option” – A look at non-strip roadways that can enhance both accessibility and community appearance
- “Streets for Living” – Examples of traffic-calming and other design techniques that allow streets to serve pedestrians and bicycle riders, as well as cars
- “Keeping Things Moving” – Teamwork among traffic engineers, planners and others to improve traffic flow on existing or new roads,
which is called ‘access management’ - “Portfolio” – A number of projects showing how design can shape and reshape the character of places.
