Transport Studies Group

ARTISTS - Arterial Streets Towards Sustainability

Contact: Peter Jones

ARTISTS is a joint European Project funded by the European Commission, a part of Key Action "City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage" in the Fifth Framework Programme "Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development". The project, involving nine research partners and seven city partners, was started on December 1, 2001 and will be finalised at the end of November 2004.

The primary aim of this project is to develop Best Practice Guidelines, for city authorities throughout the European Union, to re-design and re-organise arterial streets in such a way as to improve the physical environment of the corridors while contributing to the implementation of more sustainable urban transport systems. The project also aims to improve the basis for decisions regarding reconstruction of arterial streets, taking into account a broad set of social, economic and environmental factors. Creating and testing innovative tools that promote the discussion of the various functions of arterial streets, physical design and traffic management options are a central objective of the research. ARTISTS objectives include:

1. Devising objective definitions of the different forms of arterial streets, their functions and the various user groups involved.
2. Measuring the 'performance' of arterial streets, in terms of a range of criteria extending from mobility to environmental and social factors.
3. Making explicit the various choices and trade-offs that are involved in deciding on transport services, traffic management and the allocation of road space for arterial streets.
4. Assessment of existing implementation processes including public involvement and decision making.
5. Innovative tools for generating alternative options for design, function and traffic management. Options that can contribute to meeting agreed performance targets, while respecting cultural diversity.
6. Producing a 'user friendly' set of Best Practice Guidelines based on the above.

The final best practice guide, Arterial Streets for People, will be available in late 2004/early 2005 (subject to EC approval).

Conference

The ARTISTS approach and findings were presented at the conference: From Main Roads to Mixed-Use Streets: Redesigning Traffic Arteries in Urban Areas which took place in Kensington, London on 3rd-4th November 2004.

Documents produced by University of Westminster

Deliverable D1.1 - A First Theoretical Approach to Classification of Arterial Streets July 2002 (Acrobat format 1.60MB)

Deliverable D1.2 - A First Theoretical Approach to Sustainability Concepts and Assessment Tools July 2002 (Acrobat format 1.45MB)

Deliverable D1 - A Framework for Classification and Assessment of Arterial Streets July 2004 (Acrobat format 1.03MB)

Conference paper - Arterial Streets Towards Sustainability January 2004 (Acrobat format 205k)

Conference paper - Building on Buchanan: Evolving Road Hierarchy for Today's Streets-Oriented Design Agenda October 2004 (Acrobat format 96k)

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Full details of the ARTISTS project and documents, including all Deliverable reports and street case study reports from nine countries, are available at the project website, http://www.tft.lth.se/artists.

The ARTISTS project is part of cluster of EC projects dealing with Land Use - Transport Research (LUTR). See http://www.lutr.net.

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