Residential street design : do the British and Australians know something we Americans don't ?

This paper presents a comparison of American, British and Australian residential street design standards, and considers how far the American standards have fallen behind the others. It outlines the following different views of street junctions: (1) contemporary US road hierarchy; (2) neo-traditional road hierarchy; and (3) Australian/British road hierarchy. The design manuals of the three nations have similar objectives and concepts, but differ with respect to their specific guidelines for: (1) geometric design; (2) pedestrian facilities; (3) intersection design; (4) network design; and (5) traffic calming. The paper gives many specific examples of differences between these guidelines, and includes comparative tables of: (1) design guidelines for local and access roads; (2) design guidelines for collector and distributor roads; and (3) design guidelines for intersections, networks, and traffic calming devices. The author states that, to road engineers and street designers in Florida, USA, the British and Australian design practices seem to offer the best features of the contemporary and neo-traditional US design approaches, and of the European traffic calming approach.