Streets
Kerbside is the most contested space in a city
Parking, deliveries, buses, bikes, dining and drainage all want the same metre and a half. Most cities allocate it by inertia.
Streets
Pavements, crossings, kerbs and the metre-by-metre design of moving through a city.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Streets
The pavement is infrastructure, and it is measured badly
Footways carry more trips than any other mode in most cities and receive a fraction of the assessment.
More in Streets
Streets
Street geometry sets driving speed and the sign only asks
Drivers choose a speed from what the road looks like. The posted number is a legal statement about a decision already made by the…
Streets
Corner radius is a speed limit you can measure with a tape
The curve where two streets meet decides how fast vehicles turn across a crossing and how far a pedestrian has to walk to get over…
Streets
One-way systems move cars past the shops that need them to stop
Converting streets to one-way raises vehicle capacity and speed, and quietly removes the conditions a high street depends on.
Streets
Signal timing rations the day and pedestrians get the remainder
Every second of green given to one movement is taken from another. The arithmetic of that split is rarely published and almost…
Streets
A wider road fills up and the mechanism is not mysterious
Added capacity lowers the cost of driving a route, and lower costs attract use. Induced demand is ordinary economics wearing a hard…
Streets
Tactile paving is a language and cities keep mispronouncing it
Those bumps and bars carry specific meanings for people who cannot see the junction. Laid in the wrong place, they say the wrong…
Streets
Street lighting is aimed at the road when people need to see faces
Lighting standards grew out of driving. The measures that matter for someone walking home are different ones.
Streets
Connectivity, not distance, decides whether people walk
Two homes the same crow-fly distance from a shop can face walks that differ by a factor of three. The difference is network shape.
Streets
Traffic calming works when it changes geometry, not when it adds signs
Humps, chicanes and build-outs succeed for the same reason: they make speed physically uncomfortable. Warnings and paint do not.
Streets
Winter maintenance shows what a city thinks its network is
Gritting routes are published documents that reveal, street by street, which parts of the city are considered essential and which…