How to design urban roads with Streetmix
Cities must be for pedestrians and that is a necessary premise in cities. urban roads of our cities. The urban road design It must be aimed at protecting the user against the discomfort of road traffic where urban planning must take more awareness and adequate guidelines to achieve an objective that is not really easy at all.
On the Internet we can find different information for project vials and even valuable manuals for ideas and guidelines on how to outline and plan a street, but online tools for draw streets it's more complicated… How to plan a street online?
Here comes into play a tool for him urban road design Although it seems more like a game at first glance, it represents a powerful application that we can use both in our projects and in any idea that we can encompass in the conversion of a street or avenue into a better space.
Streetmix It is an online project that was the result of a joint effort by several graduates of "Code for America." It is based on a «Take and Drop» tool (Drag & Drop) with an interface that lets any user design your street, both in which he truly lives, and in the one that he wishes through a urban road structure in section.
When we enter we will run into a carrying where based on the section of a street orvial pre-designed we will start to rebuild - simulate our new calland.
This app about theroad design It is not new, it has had different versions but now we believe we understand that it can help us a lot in our work or the urban approach that we want to contribute as well as in the art of outline a vial. (It is convenient to review the urban design manuals from the corresponding reference article)
When we access Streetmix, preferably we should enter with a user so that the application allows the power to save your designed projects. The first recommendation is to measure the street (Width of street) to have an idea of the drawing -plane on which we are going to work.
Later, drag elements that you want into it, such as; Maps, Bus stops, Metro, car lanes, bicycle lanes, planters, sidewalks and more than 20 options that will help us configure the urban road system What we want. And ready. More than helping to have fun, it serves to understand the possibilities that a common street has on a scheme.
This tool is a key element in the movement of cities in the United States that seek to encourage the use of citizens and Complete Streets concept.
In many cases it is used as a public consultation, of how the intervention of the work will look once the road is finished. It is part of a worldwide movement of human cities (See also DOT City) in which you are looking ensure that all streets are accessible to all, from children to the elderly, from cyclists to the disabled.
Go to the streetmix.net app from streetmix.net from HERE.
Let's remember that recently we also investigated two very interesting open source and free tools; The OpenStreetMap tool and Osmbuildings in the article urban topography for 3D cities and in the interactive map where the improvements are substantial.
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