Salt Lake City, Utah is asking for a public review of its new guide – The Street & Intersection Typologies Design Guide – that details 15 new street designs, or ‘typologies.’ The goal of the project is to aid in re-imagining the streets so they work better for everyone.
The street classifications are based on responses from a survey that was created last autumn. Responses from the survey showed that residents want streets that are designed to prioritize people. The primary functions that residents seek in public right-of-ways include:
- personal mobility: people walking, using mobility devices, and cycling;
- greening: having trees and vegetation to enhance livability, shade, and environmental sustainability goals;
- place making: activity, vibrancy and the use of streets as destinations;
- kerbside uses: bus stops, street parking, pick-up/drop-off, bike parking, and deliveries of goods; and,
- vehicle mobility: the movement of transit, automobiles, and freight.
The typologies include: commercial shared street; destination thoroughfare; neighborhood corridor; neighborhood green street; urban green street; and urban village street.
“Streets make up about 80 per cent of all public spaces in the city,” said Tom Millar, the Typologies Guide’s project manager with the City’s Transportation Division. “This design guide offers the people of Salt Lake City the opportunity to re-imagine every street in Salt Lake City and redesign them from the ground up.”
The public review will be open until August 15th, 2020. The city then plans to create a final draft of the Typologies Guide which will be used to assist planners, designers, the public, and their representatives to better imagine, design, adjust, and maintain streets.