READING - Complete Street Design Guides

We are becoming more and more aware that our streets have been designed for motor vehicles and they are not prepared to accommodate cycle and pedestrian traffic safely. If we approach municipal authorities, their engineers point to the TAC Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads and refuse to budge from what it contains.

What does it contain? Well, unless you have $225 to spend or your public library contains a copy, that's a mystery to most of us.

The Global Street Design Guide, provides strategies to help cities reduce speeding, prioritize sustainable mobility choices, and design safe streets for all road users.

The document's forward by Janette Sadik - Kahn says:

Inspired by the work in 70 cities in 40 countries on six continents, this guide marks the next step toward changing the old road hierarchy, with designs that save lives, prioritize people and transit, reflect diverse communities, and better serve everyone on the street. The real-world case studies in these pages are a new global blueprint for safer, higher-performing streets and a permission slip for city leaders to innovate and translate these designs to their own roads.

There is likely a solution to your issue somewhere in the 426 pages that are available as a free download.

The International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) has created a Star Rating methodology that offers a useful framework for validating the design strategies highlighted in the design guide.

With a little bit of thought and effort, you can have a solid basis to bring your suggestions for neighbourhood road safety improvements to municipal authorities.