HOME MyTRB CONTACT US DIRECTORY E-NEWSLETTER FOLLOW US RSS


The National Academies

TCRP H-04D(2) [Completed]

The Role of Street Design and Traffic Management in Supporting Transit and Livable Communities

  Project Data
Funds: $75,000
Research Agency: Project for Public Spaces, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Fred I. Kent and Steve Davies
Effective Date: 7/1/1996
Completion Date: 7/31/1997

TCRP Report 33, "Transit-Friendly Streets: Design and Traffic Management Strategies to Support Livable Communities," addresses the connection between transit and streets, recognizing that the design and management of streets and traffic can and does affect the livability of communities. The report presents strategies emerging across the United States where effective, balanced incorporation of transit into city streets is having a positive impact on livability and quality of life.

The overall goal of this research was to develop specific ways that streets in commercial districts can be designed and managed to support effective, efficient, and convenient transit operations and to make communities more livable, based on a better understanding of the successes and failures of strategies used around the United States. The research assessed both the design and management of streets as well as the policy actions, municipal organizational structure, and general economic context in which those changes were planned. As with the previous research, this project assessed how to best reach a broad target audience and how to integrate recommendations into national and state transportation policy.

TCRP Report 33 will be of interest to many individuals involved in the planning and development of transportation and land use in urbanized areas. If designed to accommodate and balance the needs of all users--not just the users of cars--streets can contribute to the livability of a community by enhancing safety, comfort, and convenience for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. For the transit user, better management and design of streets not only can improve reliability of service (by having less competition for street space between cars, buses, or light rail vehicles) but also can make it more convenient for transit users to access a transit stop. In addition, these approaches can be combined with other transit strategies to promote even greater social and economic impacts.

TCRP Report 33 is available in portable document format (PDF). (A free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at https://www. adobe.com) Note: Because of the very large size of this file, it may take some time to download. We regret the inconvenience.

To create a link to this page, use this URL: http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=1130