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Executive Summary

Designing Streets puts well-designed streets back at the heart of sustainable communities in Scotland, building on a rich history of successful place making. This Executive Summary highlights the key messages in Designing Streets and the status and application of the document.

For too long, the principal focus has been on the movement function of streets. The result has often been places that are dominated by motor vehicles and so fail to make a positive contribution to achieving a good quality of life. Designing Streets demonstrates the benefits that flow from good design and assigns a higher priority to pedestrians and cyclists. It sets out an approach to the design, particularly of residential and other lightly trafficked streets, that recognises their role in creating places that work for all members of the community . Designing Streets refocuses on the place-making function, giving clear guidance on how to achieve well-designed streets and spaces that serve the community in a range of ways.

Designing Streets updates the link between planning and transportation policy and street design. It places particular emphasis on the importance of collaborative working and coordinated decision-making, as well as on the value of strong leadership and a clear vision of design quality at the local level. It also highlights the linkage between street design and a range of other policy objectives.

Research carried out in the preparation of Manual for Streets ¹, on which this document is based, indicated that many of the criteria routinely applied in street design across the UK are based on questionable or outdated practice. For example, it showed that, when long forward visibility is provided and generous carriageway width is specified, driving speeds tend to increase. This demonstrates that driver behaviour is not fixed; rather, it can be influenced by the environment .

Designing Streets addresses these points, recommending revised key geometric design criteria to allow streets to be designed as places in their own right while still ensuring that road safety is maintained.

Previous guidance contained in PAN76 New Residential Streets ² made it clear that uncoordinated decision-making can result in disconnected, bland places that fail to make a contribution to the creation of thriving communities. The principle is further reinforced in Designing Streets, which recommends that those involved in design and approval are encouraged to work together strategically from an early stage to negotiate issues in the round and retain a focus on the creation of locally distinct, high-quality places. Designing Streets also highlights the value of tools such as masterplans, quality audits and design codes.

Neighbourhoods where buildings, streets and spaces combine to create locally distinct places and which make a positive contribution to the life of local communities need to become more widespread. Designing Streets provides a clear framework for the use of local systems and procedures; it also identifies the tools available to ensure that growth and change are planned for and managed in an integrated way. The principles of Designing Streets - interdisciplinary working, strategic coordination and balanced decision making - will only become a reality if they are developed and applied at a local level. This is already happening in some places, and the results are promising as demonstrated in the case studies included. This document aims to make the adoption of such practice the norm.

Designing Streets is expected to be used predominantly for the design, construction, adoption and maintenance of new streets, but it is also applicable to existing streets subject to re-design. For new streets, Designing Streets advocates a return to more traditional patterns which are easier to assimilate into existing built-up areas and which have been proven to stand the test of time in many ways.

Designing Streets is a companion document to Designing Places and applies the principles of good design contained in that policy to both new and existing streets. Like Designing Places, it marks the Scottish Government's determination to raise standards of urban and rural development and is aimed at everyone who plays a part in shaping the built environment. Designing Places highlights six key qualities of successful places. Designing Streets explains how these qualities are applied to street design as follows:

DISTINCTIVE: responding to local context to create places that are distinctive.

SAFE AND PLEASANT: creating safe and attractive places using imaginative layouts to minimise vehicle speeds naturally.

EASY TO GET TO AND MOVE AROUND: enabling ease of movement by all modes of travel, particularly walking and cycling, connecting well with existing streets and allowing for links into future areas of development.

WELCOMING: encouraging positive interaction between neighbours, creating a strong sense of community,

ADAPTABLE: planning networks that allow for future adaptation.

RESOURCE EFFICIENT: using materials and designs that are durable and cost effective to construct and maintain.

The government wish to see these 6 key qualities of successful places taken forward in street design and approval. To assist this process, a number of key policy principles have been developed following close consultation with key stakeholders. These can be summarised as follows:

• applying a user hierarchy to the design process with pedestrians at the top, followed by cyclists, public transport users and then motor vehicles;
• promoting a collaborative approach to the delivery of streets both within local authorities and developers' teams and with other key stakeholders;
• promoting a more streamlined and consistent approval process across Scotland, linking Roads Construction Consent with planning approval;
• promoting the importance of the community function of streets as spaces for social interaction;
• promoting an inclusive environment that recognises the needs of people of all ages and abilities;
• promoting the value of masterplans and design codes that implement them, supporting local diversity and context;
• promoting networks of streets that provide a high degree of permeability and connectivity to main destinations and a choice of routes to help support wider transport and environmental objectives;
• making streets distinctive, and diverse by developing street character types on a location-specific basis;
• using design led approaches to influence driver behaviour to deliver safe streets for all;
• adopting a design led approach to parking;
• encouraging innovation with a flexible approach to street layouts and the use of locally distinctive, durable, sustainable and maintainable materials and street furniture;
• using quality audit systems that demonstrate how designs will meet key objectives for the scheme including safety;
• designing to keep vehicle speeds at or below 20 mph on residential streets unless there are overriding reasons for accepting higher speeds whilst using the minimum of road design features necessary to make the streets work properly.

STATUS AND APPLICATION

Designing Streets is split into two separate parts - the first, Policy has the status of statutory government policy and lays out the context and principles for taking forward the design of residential and lightly trafficked streets in Scotland, and thus is a material consideration in decisions in planning applications and appeals. This section also provides important information on risk and liability issues.

The second part, Supporting Guidance, is split into three, sections A and B provide design principles and detailed design issues, section C consists of 5 detailed case studies which demonstrate current aspects of best practice.

Designing Streets, as well as providing new policy principles, also provides more comprehensive technical guidance than the previous advice contained in PAN 76 - New Residential Streets. PAN76 is therefore now withdrawn, but its principles are maintained and developed within this new document.

Designing Streets has been developed by the Scottish Government from Manual for Streets (MfS), which was produced for the Department for Transport as a collaborative effort involving a wide range of key stakeholders with an interest in street design. It was published in England and Wales in March 2007. The additional information and changes necessary to make the document appropriate for use in Scotland have also been subject to significant stakeholder consultation. It has been developed by a multi-disciplinary team of roads and transportation engineers, urban designers, planners and legal advisors. The recommendations contained herein are based on a combination of:

• primary research undertaken in developing MfS;
• case studies;
• existing good practice guidance; and
• consultation with stakeholders and practitioners.

During its preparation, efforts have been made to ensure that Designing Streets represents a broad consensus and that it is widely accepted as good practice.

MfS superseded Design Bulletin 32 and its companion guide Places, Streets and Movement. Although the latter two documents were not formally adopted in Scotland, they were often referred to by Roads Authorities when determining local standards. It is therefore important to recognise that they are no longer considered to represent up-to-date good practice.

Most local authorities in Scotland have developed their own guidance and standards on streets and there is still seen to be a key role for local guidance to ensure that street design responds to local context. These existing documents will contain useful information for example construction details and local palettes of materials which may still be relevant. However, in many cases, other existing local guidance for example on the general layout of developments and street geometry will not be consistent with Designing Streets in both principle and detail and this information will need to be redrafted. Local authorities should thus, individually or collectively, take on board Designing Streets, developing local guidance that is in line with the new policy.

Designing Streets complements Scottish Planning Policy SPP3: Planning for Housing and SPP:17 Planning for Transport.

Designing Streets provides key policy principles that should be followed in designing and approving residential and many other lightly-trafficked streets, but many of its key principles are also applicable to other types of street, for example rural and high streets.

Designing Streets does not generally apply to trunk roads, but in some locations, such as where a trunk road passes through the centre of a small town, and the 'place function' (see Chapter 1) is high, a more sensitive design that follows the principles of Designing Streets may well be appropriate.

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