DfT backs ‘less is more’ approach on streets

02 April 2008

A new Department for Transport note encourages a minimalist and flexible approach to street design on both urban and rural roads.

Local transport note 1/08 aims to encourage design teams to ‘minimise the various traffic signs, road markings and street furniture associated with traffic management schemes’. It is ‘fully compatible’ with the Manual for streets’ ‘less is more’ ethos, but takes Mfs a step forward by including all types and scale of road schemes, rather than focusing on residential schemes.

Colin Davis, an urban designer who contributed to the document, said the note represented ‘one more step in the DfT declaring streetscape/urban design an important factor in street design’. It surpassed Mfs by including rural roads, ‘where lots of signs are traffic engineers talking to each other, or a security blanket’. Designers are urged to use professional judgement when designing schemes, and not to be over-reliant on guidance.

‘In reality, highway and planning authorities may exercise discretion in developing and applying their own local policies and standards,’ the report states. Davis estimates that 95% of traffic engineers take regulation as gospel.

But Ben Hamilton Baillie, consultant, said it was an area that presented the Government with a dilemma, because it moved away from regulation by the state. He said there was ‘doubt about how influential Local transport notes were in changing processes and practice’.

Nevertheless, he said, the note gave encouragement that the DfT recognised there was a problem and has started to address some of the issues.

‘It is particularly useful in addressing many of the organisational and training needs necessary to achieve high standards,’ he added.

The note draws on a number of case studies, including a rural road scheme in Cumbria where the county council narrowed the carriageway and removed road centre lines on the A6. It also urges highways authorities to involve contractors as early as possible, so they ‘will understand the vision’, and it calls for better communication between the urban designer and engineers.

Local transport note 1/08: Traffic management and streetscape

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DfT backs ‘less is more’ approach on streets

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