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According to an experienced Charrette leader, streets and arterials are so defining an element of urban design that it is actually pointless to discuss the treatment of sidewalks and buildings unless and until one also makes decisions about the  nature of the street and its transportation dynamics. And the reverse also holds true. In other words, streets, buildings and human activities form a single, mutually-defining system.
By bringing to mind some of the less familiar ‘street’ patterns, the following is meant to expand discussions about the range of possibilities. |
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The Multiway Boulevard |
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New Hampshire Avenue has some characteristics of a multiway boulevard, though it is without trees, sidewalks or lanes for local commercial traffic.
In this article, Berkeley professor Elizabeth Macdonald describes how she helped transform an eight-lane throughway built for speed into something a San Francisco neighborhood felt they could more comfortably live with. The resulting multiway boulevard is still something of a rarity in the United States. |
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| Alleyways |
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| Alleys and narrow streets often enhance the pedestrian experience. This Washington, D.C. alley won an urban design award from the AIA in 2005. Cady’s Alley |
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Another good example of an alley—note the trees, the multiple textures on the street and the generous borders. This one is located in the Society Hill district of Philadelphia. |
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An alley and housing development created by American designers George Holt and Andrew Gould made use of antique brick salvaged from a run-down site in Charleston, South Carolina. Though this housing group and alley was begun only in 1997, its feel is very rooted, almost ‘historic.’ |
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| Pedestrian-friendly streets |
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An excellent resource on many aspects of building streets that are safe and that feel safe to pedestrians has been put together by the Georgia Department of Transportation. The pictures and pointers on pages 27 – 30 of this guide are of particular interest.
There are innumerable ways to encourage both pedestrians and cars to use Avenues. Many streets, such as the ones illustrated at left, have found ways to do so with considerable grace. The lower one shows a sidewalk with ample room both for pedestrians and street furniture. However, many arterial roads—even those in major commercial districts—have either no sidewalk at all, or one that is too narrow for even a bench. |
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| Trees |
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Trees calm traffic, foster pleasant sidewalks and are often one of the most defining characteristics of a place. Dan Burden, the well-known consultant on pedestrian-friendly urbanism, lists here 22 benefits of urban trees. |
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| Street grid |
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Allan Jacobs, a distinguished professor of urban planning at U.C. Berkeley, has compared the intricacy of the street grid in cities throughout the world. He has found that the finer this grid—as measured by the number of intersections per square mile—the easier it is for people to walk.
 In highly walkable Rome , for example (see left), the number of intersections per square mile is about 500.
 The corresponding number for Venice , Italy , is 1,500; for Los Angeles , 150; for Irvine , California (pictured at left), the number is 15
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Street layouts by contemporary American designers Andrew Gould and George Holt make use of the same insight so well articulated by Professor Jacobs. See their Mixson Avenue development, or the street grid for one of their smaller developments illustrated on the left. Note that their grid design also creates strong negative space between structures—another typical characteristic of highly walkable cities like Rome . |
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