The social and environmental functions of streets in the UK is increasingly compromised due to the impact vehicles are having on pedestrians, either due to the noise of the traffic or the level of car emissions. The aim of this research project is to develop a set of design principles that can be implemented to create sustainable streets. Social and environmental functions are here understood to be placemaking perspectives where streets become better places for people to use and responsible in an environmental sense.

The expectation is that the generated principles can be replicated to different streets across the country, in the hope that they become better places, in a social, environmental and economic sense.

Design Principles were achieved through a mix of enquiry by design (interviews and urban design workshops with the general public) and the analysis of case studies. The case studies chosen were examples around the world where good street design has been delivered. In the enquiry by design stage, key design features were identified from case study analysis and interviews with the general public and experts. These features were incorporated into a design of a typical retail street in the UK: to test their effectiveness and replicability in an urban design workshop with the general public.