The belief that wide travel corridors, free of trees and other obstacles, are safe is challenged in this study that examines livable streetscape treatments and finds compelling evidence that suggests they may actually enhance the safety of urban roadways. Transportation safety is a highly contentious issue in the design of cities and communities. While urban designers, architects, and planners often encourage the use of aesthetic streetscape treatments to enhance the livability of urban streets, conventional transportation safety practice regards roadside features such as street trees as fixed-object hazards and strongly discourages their use. In this study, Eric Dumbaugh examines the subject of livable streetscape treatments and find compelling evidence that suggests they may actually enhance the safety of urban roadways. Concerns about their safety effects do not appear to be founded on empirical observations of crash performance, but instead on a design philosophy that discounts the important relationship between driver behavior and safety. This study traces the origin and evolution of this philosophy, and proposes an alternative that may better account for the dynamic relationships between road design, driver behavior, and transportation safety.

External Links:

More Information: www.planning.org/japa/pdf/JAPADumbaugh05.pdf

Further Reading:

Safe Streets, Livable Streets