Trying to make sense of highways and transport in the UK

摘要

Where should the balance lie between standards and guidance for street design? Do both stifle creativity or make us too risk-averse? Or do we need the level of conformity that standards provide to ensure common features are implemented consistently? Don't we all need the little nudge that guidance can offer? It is a grey area, with standards and guidance often being used interchangeably and specific ideas being cherry-picked from both without thinking how they might sometimes contradict. At the one end of the spectrum, we have the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges IDMRB)111 which is a standard. Well, mainly a standard. It has plenty of guidance within it, but it is something that has been put into place to cover common types of road across the UK where consistency of layout, separation of opposing flows on links and management of conflicts at nodes is paramount to moving motor traffic.