The most distinctive character of the new German guidelines for urban streets is the offer of two ways of designing: one with a quite strictly guided design process, the other with a quite free and individual way of designing. The new German guidelines provide "recommended solutions" for 12 types of urban context, which may be regarded as typical of about 70-80% of design projects. For each type there is an illustrated description to compare the design situation with the typical situations and to choose one of them. The user is then guided step by step and, by following the given specifications, will find a recommended street cross section which fits the project in a functional way and guarantees a safe and context sensitive design. For some cases, how to modify the cross section approximating an intersection is also demonstrated. Whenever the designer wants to create another cross section he or she may use the information about the characteristic requirements of all kinds of street users. The instructions for more than 70 design elements and their combinations are given in the guidelines.
Abstract