Planning city streets
We take a holistic approach to planning urban road and street networks, working on a range of projects to optimise existing infrastructure while finding ways to alleviate the impact of historical planning choices.
Our goal is to help clients to identify how to serve a more complex mix of users, from families to freight drivers and from pedestrians and cyclists to electric vehicle users.
Securing funding
We help clients to define a planning approach that will secure funding. Our plans provide an integrated definition of the value that can be achieved and build confidence in a proposal’s overall viability and strategic case.
Preliminary feasibility studies
At the feasibility stage, Arup supports clients with a full multidisciplinary service, comprising the economic case, traffic modelling, as well as the physical engineering, geotechnical and structural needs of a proposed city road scheme. Our insights lead to a stronger, better supported business case.
Community engagement
City road networks are always an issue of great public interest. Although public consultation requirements vary from country to country, we believe they always strengthen a project’s likelihood of long-term success. We carry out targeted engagement with those directly affected by roads, using these insights to shape and define the project’s form. We also offer visualisation and virtual engagement services, to help educate the whole community about a proposal.
Reconnecting segregated communities
Historically, many urban road networks were developed without regard for marginalised communities, creating physical division and exposing certain groups to poorer air quality. Arup plans scheme redevelopments with the aim of addressing these inequities and reconnecting communities within an urban area, strengthening social cohesion.
More about our work reconnecting communities in the USA.
Throughout the 20th century, US highways were built through neighborhoods across the country, resulting in the displacement of homes and businesses, disproportionately impacting communities of color.
The Southern California Association of Governments selected Arup to conduct a landmark Highways to Boulevards Study. The study aims to identify opportunities to reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating transportation facilities — such as highways or railways that create barriers to community connectivity including mobility, access, or economic development — and offering a path for communities to reknit to better fit the context of their surroundings and serves all people.
Get in touch with our team
Explore
Learn more about how our services can support your project:
Projects
Explore more roads and streets projects
Transforming the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine to deliver more than just safer journeys
A66 Northern Trans-Pennine upgrade, UK
Creating a net zero future for Western Australia’s road network
Main Roads Western Australia Net Zero 2050 Transition Roadmap, Australia
Covering Antwerp Ring Road: paving the way for a greener, safer and connected city of Antwerp
Antwerp Ring Road, Belgium
Digital tool identifies carbon reduction strategies for major roads
Outcome-led design tool, Australia
City road networks
We take a multidisciplinary approach to our roads and streets work in urban environments, looking at how road based travel connects with other modes such as rail and bringing the full breadth of Arup services to our urban road clients.