Abu Dhabi Street Design Manual
Writing that “previous design guidance was influenced by documents such as the AASHTO Green Book, which is inappropriate for urban streets where modes of transport other than the automobile are present,” Nelson/Nygaard has made available its Abu Dhabi Street Design Manual, which provides guidance to “design streets that create a safe environment for all users; transition from a vehicle-trip based society to a multimodal society; introduce fine-grained street networks into the existing super-block pattern.”
It is, they suggest, “perhaps one of the most progressive in the world.”
Judge for yourself here.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 10:10 am and is filed under Cities, Traffic Culture, Traffic Engineering, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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January 30th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
If it were progressive, you’d be able to download it without having to pay for it. Kind of like we’re able to do here in the US.
January 30th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
You can, right here!
http://nelsonnygaard.com/Documents/Reports/Abu-Dhabi-StreetDesignManual.pdf
February 5th, 2010 at 10:35 am
I’m in Cairo Egypt where we truly have roads traveled by a variety (donkeys, horses, carts, cars, motorcycles from Russia - everything imaginable) of vehicles. Somehow it works. I don’t like it, but it seems to work. We lived in Abu Dhabi for about 6 years, and during that time they renovated the Corniche. I liked the way the street system worked there, after getting use to it. Roundabouts, instead of multiple intersections, u-turns before intersections - you digest it, and learn the best routes. Whereas in the US, waiting for people to take turns to turn, people who use no signals, etc., can be frustrating. The system Abu Dahbi had, got rid of much of that, because it was believed that those rules (turn signals, stop signs, etc.) were just for the westerners. So assuming most of the people (from south Asia & the Middle East) ignore those rules, another model based on road design is used instead. Since I’m in Cairo & can’t download the complete file (the Internet takes forever here) I am assuming it follows with the previous thinking - design roads to go with the thinking, not try to change the thinking to make people drive differently. Maybe I’m off the mark here.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Finally got the PDF to download (it took forever). I laughed so hard I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke, or some lofty idea that will never see fruition. And, if it does, it probably won’t be done right. They made bike lanes for the new Corniche. But, instead of adding them on the streets they installed them on the sidewalk, leading to instances of pedestrians, and roller bladers screaming and running for their lives. (The pedestrians were breaking the rules, but they didn’t know any better.) And I find this amusing coming from a government that at one time, when we lived there, would go around confiscating bicycles, because they didn’t want their city turning into a Little Delhi. The least I can say, is they’re giving their traffic / street use serious consideration. On the other hand, when I read, smaller streets, that just means they’re running out of land, and trying to figure out how to adjust traffic to meet residential growth, i.e. more new buildings and smaller roadways (they tear down decent buildings regularly to raise the roof for more profit.) Time will tell.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Vagabondblogger, did you find a link to download it? I am looking for it but didn’t succeed at all. Would you share it?
Thanks.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:15 am
I clicked on the link provided by Charlie. I’m in Cairo, and patience is the word, every single day, so it did take quite a while to download.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:49 am
Looks like the link’s disappeared. Anyone know where I can find a pdf copy of this now?
February 25th, 2010 at 6:01 am
http://www.upc.gov.ae/en/SustainableUrbanDesign/UrbanStreetDesignManual.aspx
March 7th, 2010 at 4:39 am
Interesting to see it refered to as Nelson Nygaards document, I am not sure the actual owner Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, or the lead consultant for the development of the Manual, Otak Internaional, would agree with this claim!