Sunday, March 28, 2010

Urban Street Design Guidelines

The  Urban Street Design Guidelines (USDG) are the implementation tool for planning and designing Charlotte's streets and for providing viable transportation choices for all Charlotteans. The USDG are intended to create "complete" streets--streets that provide capacity and mobility for motorists, while also being safer and more comfortable for pedestrians, cyclists, and neighborhood residents.
We can't keep widening our roads, so we have to broaden our thinking.
City Council adopted the USDG in 2007. The key intentions of the USDG are reflected in the USDG Policy Summary Document. The individual USDG chapters are available below. You can receive update notices on this page by clicking on the "Notify Me" button at the top of the page.
 
How are USDG being applied?
The city applies the USDG design recommendations to capital projects. To date, this includes a total of:
  • 8 New Thoroughfares
  • 10 Streetscape Projects
  • 9 Road Conversions
  • 11 Rebuilt Intersections
  • 15 Sidewalk Projects
These projects reflect Charlotte's new approach of designing and building streets that improve safety and neighborhood livability, promote transportation choices and create long-lasting value. Click here to see examples and brief descriptions of city projects designed using the USDG.