Manual For Streets - Overview

Overview

The UK Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), with support from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), commissioned WSP Group, Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Llewelyn Davies Yeang and Phil Jones Associates to develop Manual for Streets to give guidance to a range of practitioners on effective street design.

Manual for Streets was published on 29 March 2007. It superseded Design Bulletin 32 – Residential Roads and Footpaths – Layout Considerations (DB32) and the companion guide Places, Streets and Movement, which have now been withdrawn. A copy of the manual as well a summary and supporting research can be downloaded from the Department for Transport.

Manual for Streets has updated geometric guidelines for low trafficked residential streets, examines the effect of the environment on road user behaviour, and draws on practice in other countries. This research undertaken by Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) provides the evidence base upon which the revised geometric guidelines in the Manual for Streets are based, including link widths, forward visibility, visibility splays and junction spacing.

Manual for Streets applies in England and Wales and is national guidance, not a policy document.

The Scottish Government commissioned WSP Group, Phil Jones Associates and Edaw to produce Designing Streets, a version of Manual for Streets for application in Scotland, which was due to be published in Spring 2009. Unlike Manual for Streets, it is currently intended that the chapters of Designing Streets that set key design principles for streets will form national policy.