Sidewalks and Streetscaping

Design Principles:

1. Public spaces: Sidewalks should be designed as high quality public spaces, promoting active use by residents and visitors and enhancing pedestrian experiences. Amenities such as street furniture, banners, art, street trees and special paving, way finding signage, along with historical elements and cultural references, should promote a ‘sense of place’.

2. Scale: Sidewalks should be designed according to the function and nature of adjoining land uses. For example, wide sidewalks are required for many commercial areas with high pedestrian volumes.

3. Safety: Sidewalks should provide safe environments, and provide unobstructed pedestrian movements along and across the street. Sidewalks should be designed and built free of hazards and to minimize conflicts with external factors such as vehicular movements and protruding architectural elements. Key elements of safe design include lighting and buffers from fast-moving traffic - e.g. boulevards, plantings and on-street parking.

4. Connections: Sidewalks should be located so that the majority of residents are conveniently connected between destinations such as institutional, recreational and retail/employment areas and transit facilities. Marked and lighted crosswalks are a key issue for pedestrian safety and should be provided wherever required.

Source: Regional Municipality of Niagara, Model Urban Design Guidelines, 2005

Additional Resources:

Planting Native Species
http://www.evergreen.ca/nativeplants/learn-more/native-species.html

Designing Community Spaces
http://www.evergreen.ca/en/cg/toolshed/facts/cg-fact7.pdf

Community Energy Association Energy Ideas Toolkit
http://www.energyaware.bc.ca/tk_e_options.htm