Abstract Manager

A well-designed street network manages the competing needs of streets: to connect people and communities, efficiently move goods, and to support the places along them.  

While a lot of progress has been made in Canada to improve roadway and intersection designs to safely accommodate active transportation, adopting a network-level approach has the potential to achieve even greater safety benefits. In addition to implementing engineering solutions to mitigate conflicts between motor vehicles and vulnerable road users, separating the primary motor vehicle routes from primary active transportation routes can minimize the occurence of such conflicts in the first place.  With over 50 years of planning and engineering, the Netherlands has strategically separated the networks for incompatible movement types and vehicle classes to reduce conflicts between users. Similar frameworks are also being developed globally in places such as the UK and Australia to reduce dangerous conflicts and improve urban environments. 

This presentation by Narayan Donaldson and Nick Falbo will reveal how the Dutch Sustainable Safety approach applies the complete networks concept in practice, allowing street layouts to be rationalized to minimize stops for cyclists, reduce conflicts at intersections, reduce competition for scarce road space, and affordably implement safe and attractive active transportation routes. The presentation will also highlight examples of international planning frameworks which support the design of complete networks and share examples of their application in Canada using local examples.