Urban Street Design

SES 5535 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Can re-envisioning our approach to street design lead to more sustainable and livable cities centered around people instead of cars? This course will equip students with conceptual frameworks, technical planning / design skills, and political/ policy approaches necessary to engage with professionals and the wider public on next-generation street design. Designing streets is not a simple technocratic exercise, rather one laden with societal value judgements and tradeoffs—we will address both in this course.

While maximizing vehicle throughput and parking has driven street design for over a century, we are experiencing a paradigm shift toward a more human-scale approach focusing on people walking, biking, and taking public transportation. The formation of NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) and publication of their urban-focused design guides was a pivotal moment alongside a shift in focus by the advocacy movement from education/enforcement to infrastructure/design.

This course will address frameworks including Vision Zero / Systematic Safety / Safe Systems Approach, Complete Streets, Human Centered Design, and Transit Oriented Development. Technical skills include: network connectivity, Level of Bicycle Stress, separated bicycle facility design, protected intersections, roundabouts, pedestrian safety and traffic calming, people-first traffic signal design, bus priority, accessibility, green infrastructure, streetscape design, curbside management, and tactical urbanism / quick-build. Case studies of streets in the greater Boston area, both newly constructed and still in planning, will provide insights at a practitioner level. Local field work site visits will augment classroom learning. In addition, principles of Dutch street design will be incorporated into the course—we have some important lessons to learn from a country where over 25% of trips are taken by bicycle and there are one-third fewer road deaths per capita.

This course includes technical design but at a level that welcomes planners and engineers alike– and others too! Students will develop and demonstrate these skills through the completion of a real project for a client in the greater Boston area. (The Spring 2027 course is dedicated to Louisa Gag, 1992-2026).