[sustran] Social Roads

[eric.britton]

From: Robert Bartlett [mailto:roadnotes at freenet.de] 
Sent: Monday, 18 February 2008 16:36

In the circumstances Sudhir describes the new road is a single-mode route
(faster motorised vehicles). It will damage or destroy several existing
networks (NMT, low speed MT) and also the existing integration of roads,
land-use and societies. 

Reducing speed to reduce accidents may not be an option, if the client wants
a high-speed road.

In urban areas a coordinated mix of (traffic, land use and social use) for a
road is becoming seen as desirable even on a small scale- e.g. streetscapes,
street scenes, dwell areas for people. Felicien Amakpe's research and
photographs show that rural and semi-urban roads have social and
non-transport uses, as well transport uses. The argument is that these
should be included for in a design

A good idea might be for engineers to have a holistic approach to road
planning and design. Also (as German guidelines recommend) they should make
sure there are complete networks for every type of road user. 

The basic problem for designers is that they often don't know what the
non-transport uses of a road are and they often don't know what the types of
road user are.

Road accidents will continue to occur where
- there is no holistic approach to road planning
- there are no complete networks for non MT users
- designers don't allow for non-transport uses 
- designers don't allow for all types of road user.


Robert Bartlett