Traffic safety should be considered in the early planning stages
Ramboll has collaborated with the Danish Road Directorate on a guide on traffic safety intended for urban planners in municipalities and private companies. The purpose of the guide is to ensure that solutions regarding traffic safety are considered in the early planning stages – including in the district planning.
Traffic safety is one among many topics for an urban planner during the planning and development stages.
However, it is important that traffic safety is considered in the very beginning to ensure that proper future solutions can be implemented in a good way in consistency with the surrounding city.
This is the reason for the guide – to give planners a tool to address the most common and current traffic safety issues related to urban planning.
The guide is easily accessible in both language and layout with direct answers to the most common issues combined with a reference to where more detailed information can be found.
Besides traffic safety in general, as well as legislation and planning process guidance, the following topics are covered in the guide:
- Consistency with the rest of the city
- Traffic in the area
- Safe roads and paths
- Retail
- Parking
- Shared Space
- Equipment and materials
- Road Safety Audit
The topics have been chosen in dialogue with urban and transport planners from five municipalities of different sizes across the country.
The most prominent message from all interviewed, whether they were urban or traffic planners, was that successful plans and good, innovative solutions are most likely to occur when traffic planners and urban planners remember to use each other and have an ongoing dialogue during all stages.
The guide is distributed to all municipalities and published on the Road Directorate's website.