This paper is also published in the Joint ARRB/DOT Pedestrian Conference, Sydney, New South Wales, 15-17 November, 1978. For the abstract see B 15148 (IRRD 239133) nature and extent of pedestrian casualties in residential areas is discussed. While constituting a minority of pedestrian accidents, the minor street casualties particularly involve the very young, and appear to have high local impact. The nature of children's use of the street is discussed, concluding that (contrary to a common planning objective) children and traffic cannot be completely separated. A design and street management approach is needed which recognises that, in all urban areas, there will inevitably be large areas within residential estates where pedestrians and traffic will be in close proximity. From a discussion of residential area layout, it is concluded that planning should aim to maximise the number of dwellings which front into culs-de-sac and other access-only streets. It is also argued that the traditional hierarchical approach to access street planning should be reassessed, to reduce the conflict between access and traffic functions of local distributors. On existing streets and where hierarchical characteristics cannot be avoided, planning should assist attempts to modify driver behaviour, particularly through lowering vehicle speech. (A)
Samenvatting