designstreets

Designstreets is a design approach that treats streets as integrated environments shaped by urban design, landscape architecture, transportation engineering, and community input. The concept aims to create street space that supports walking, cycling, transit, commerce, and social interaction while maintaining safety and efficiency.

The approach emphasizes human-scale design, safety and accessibility for all users, context sensitivity, and flexibility to adapt to different activities and times of day. It seeks to balance mobility with place-making, environmental sustainability, and resilience to climate impacts, aiming to foster vibrant, livable streets rather than solely moving vehicles.

Designstreets relies on a toolkit of integrated elements: paving and curb configurations that define space, street trees and planting for shade and moisture management, lighting and wayfinding, seating and shade structures, and durable street furniture. It also employs traffic calming, protected bike lanes, curbside management, and flexible zones for markets or performances. The design process is multidisciplinary and participatory, often involving charrettes, scenario testing, and post-occupancy evaluation to refine choices.

Applications range from redesigned residential streets and main streets to corridors around transit stations or public markets. Outcomes aim to improve safety, accessibility, economic vitality, and sense of place, while preserving through-traffic efficiency where appropriate.

Designstreets is related to concepts such as complete streets and placemaking. Critics point to potential higher upfront costs, maintenance requirements, and governance issues, underscoring the need for clear responsibilities, phased implementation, and robust performance monitoring. See also: complete streets, urban design.