Designing for Movement - Kent Design Guide

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How easily people can move sustainably within and between neighbourhoods fundamentally affects activity. Once you’ve decided on the primary elements of your layout, you can develop a movement strategy.

The guidance on this page together with our full technical standards for different road types can be downloaded here:

Designing for Movement – Kent Design Guide (V1.0)

Designing for Pedestrians and Cyclists

Residents should be encouraged to walk or cycle, so we want to see pedestrian and cycle routes that are safe, secure and convenient. Your development should be ‘permeable’ – easy to move through in all directions – and linked to existing footpaths and bridleways to create more strategic routes for walkers and riders.

Streets and paths

In certain locations and street types, such as homezones (see below) pedestrians should have clear priority. Good lighting generally encourages use, but may not be appropriate in rural settings. To cater for people with disabilities, we want to see paths that provide direct links to and from services, with smooth and well-maintained surfaces and dropped kerbs, at-grade crossings and tactile paving at all road, footway and cycleway junctions.

Cycle routes

Cycle routes need to be planned strategically rather than piecemeal. You need to consider factors including visibility, width, cycling speeds, likely use levels and the frequency of side accesses and crossings at the initial design stage.

Cycle storage

You should provide cycle storage in homes and outside community facilities, shops and other destinations as an integrated part of your building and street design. It should be weatherproof and either within a lockable curtilage or have good natural surveillance. You should also consider parking for mobility scooters where necessary.

Public Transport

All new development should include good public transport wherever possible, either by creating links to existing networks or establishing new routes. We encourage a coordinated approach between different transport types within your scheme, with buses given priority where appropriate. Bus stops should generally provide space for shelter facilities and be within a convenient walking distance, with kerb heights that make boarding easy.

Motor Vehicle Provision

Your road layout and types should cater for the size and frequency of essential vehicles, while taking account of public safety and other modes of transport. You scheme could include:

Local Distributor Roads

a busy road distributing traffic within primary residential districts
applicable to all sites on the outskirts of main towns or infill sites within existing suburban areas
serves over 300 dwellings
provides opportunities for boulevard or avenue planting and cycleways
for new developments, direct vehicular access to dwellings would not normally be provided, except for shared private drives with turning within the site.

Major Access Road

gives direct vehicle and pedestrian access to dwellings
often links several residential areas to a local distributor road
serves between 50 and 300 dwellings (or equivalent mixed uses) including those located on other access roads feeding onto it; in some cases it could serve as a bus route
has two points of access, or forms a loop with a short connection to a single point of access and a secondary emergency access link

Minor Access Road

all sites on the outskirts of main towns, infill sites within existing suburban areas, sites adjacent to or within large or small village centres
serves up to 100 dwellings, including those in other residential areas which feed onto it
should be either a through-road or, if a cul-de-sac serving more than 50 dwellings, provide alternative emergency access route
gives direct vehicle and pedestrian access to dwellings and links to other residential areas

Minor Access Way

all sites on the outskirts of main towns, infill sites within existing suburban areas and sites adjacent to or within large or small village centres
serves only essential traffic and should not encourage through traffic
gives direct vehicle and pedestrian access to dwellings and links them to other residential areas; can be a cul-de-sac in some circumstances
generally serves a maximum of about 50 dwellings including those from other areas feeding onto it
includes measures to prevent on-street parking except where designed into the layout through localised widening

Lane

rural sites next to villages or within small village centres where these are not built up
A single track loop road or cul-de-sac with passing bays, a footway usually on one side only, should be located as access points in the form of offset junctions
gives direct vehicle and pedestrian access to a limited number of dwellings and links them to existing rural roads
generally serves a maximum of 25 dwellings, with individual properties set in dominant landscaped grounds with up to 15 dwellings per hectare
all allocated parking should be off–road within property curtilages or in private communal areas

Shared Private Drive

private ways not being part of the public domain
provides direct vehicle and pedestrian access to a limited number of individual dwellings, usually from residential access roads and in some cases local distributor roads
a single track serving around five dwellings
access and turning for emergency and delivery vehicles may be required depending on length

Path

private ways not being part of the public domain
provides direct vehicle and pedestrian access to a limited number of individual dwellings, usually from residential access roads and in some cases local distributor roads
a single track serving around five dwellings
access and turning for emergency and delivery vehicles may be required depending on length

Homezones

Homezones are residential streets where people come first and have priority over vehicles, enforced by distinctive design or communal features. They promote social interaction, natural surveillance and add to outdoor leisure space while reducing opportunities for crime. Parking may be on-plot or in car barns in small blocks, and must be well related to the homes. Visitor parking should be within the homezone.

There are specific design regulations for homezones; the key characteristics:

Traffic speeds restricted to 10 mph and serves only essential traffic
high quality hard paving
strong enclosure of public access space
minimal front gardens
careful planting of trees in public area
integration within the overall network of streets, making them part of a through route system

Homezones can be created in suburban, urban and village areas, and can be surrounded by terraced, semi-detached and detached houses. In exceptional circumstances, cul-de-sacs will be permitted serving up to around 25 dwellings; where it links with other residential areas it can be a through route servicing up to 100 dwellings. The maximum distance to any point from the entrance or exit is 400m; maximum traffic flow should not exceed 100 vehicles per hour.

Design to Control Speed

Speed reducing features should be an intrinsic part of your layout through a combination of urban form and carriageway alignment. Target speeds should be self-enforcing with good design and minimal clutter.

The main factors affecting vehicle speeds are:

Driver perception of appropriate speed. Long clear vistas with little evidence of pedestrian or other activity will encourage higher speeds; restricted forward visibility will tend to make drivers more cautious.
Building close to the edge of the road and building tall helps emphasise the narrowness of the road. This sense can be enhanced by tree planting and controlled off-street parking.
While often effective, safety cameras can produce street clutter and are not an acceptable means of achieving design speeds.
Physical features: Raised measures such as road humps and speed tables are effective but are often visually intrusive, and are unsuitable on bus routes. We prefer to see horizontal restraint measures; on some streets they may provide a route for pedestrians and cyclists only.

Junctions

Tight kerb radii encourage vehicles to turn into side roads at lower speeds. Slightly widening the main carriageway at the junction will enable larger vehicles to turn without overrunning the footway; use tracking to establish the extent of widening required. Where large vehicles are infrequent, such as residential access roads, it is acceptable for turning manoeuvres to use the full width of the side road.

Table Junctions

Raised carriageways at junctions can reduce vehicle speeds and may be particularly useful at crossroads. They can also tie key public space together and increase driver perception of a pedestrian crossing area. Additional features may be required to prevent footway parking.

Ramped Pedestrian Crossings

These may be useful where a busy footway or cycleway crosses a road. Generally the length of flat section should extend for 1m either side of the crossing.

Narrowings

Most effective where vehicle flows are high or drivers know they may need to give way to oncoming traffic. Designers should ensure that there is visibility between drivers approaching a narrowed section (generally twice the stopping sight distance) and give careful consideration to cyclists.

Gateways

Useful to highlight a lower target speed at the entrance to a village or pedestrian–dominated environment, gateways can include alterations to surface materials, carriageway narrowings, enhanced landscape or building forms: avoid structures that span the adopted highway.

Bends

Tight–radius bends reduce speed and should be used alongside other features. Carriageway widening or over-run areas (determined by tracking) should be provided where high numbers of large vehicle are expected.

Lateral Shifts

These consist of deviations that create horizontal deflection, forcing a change of direction of at least 70 degrees. Be careful not to create mild chicanes, particularly in lightly trafficked areas with generous visibility as these may encourage high vehicle speeds.

Surface Texture

Uneven surface textures generally encourage lower vehicle speeds, but can have drawbacks for pedestrians and cyclists, and may create noise nuisance. We do not permit loose gravel in private areas within five metres of the adopted highway. You should create visual demarcation between the adopted highway and private land by a clear change in materials, or subtle but identifiable indicators where appropriate.

Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS)

Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) involve using technology to maximise capacity and minimise congestion on the highway network by monitoring and managing vehicle movements. The most commonly used assets are traffic signals, which use live traffic flow information to optimise signal timings and provide safe crossing points for pedestrians and cyclists. These systems also include CCTV monitoring, roadside message signs and the provision of real time travel information.

If you have a proposal which may include providing additional facilities or making changes to existing ITS assets, please contact the team via email to hmc@kent.gov.uk for an initial discussion and to request a copy of the latest technical specifications.

Vehicle Visibility

You must enable clear, unobstructed visibility in line with anticipated vehicle speeds at junctions, around curves and at entrances to premises to allow drivers and pedestrians to see and be seen.

Forward visibility should be plotted along the line likely to be followed by a car driver. Parked vehicles must not obstruct vision; this will be determined by a site-specific evaluation. Note that over–generous visibility tends to encourage higher speeds; conversely, a dense urban form with restricted visibility can contribute to speed reduction.

Vehicle Turning

You should generally avoid the need for turning vehicles by designing layouts with through routes.

Where this is not possible turning facilities should be provided wherever:

vehicles would otherwise have to reverse a long distance
vehicles might turn in places that could be unsafe or cause damage to verges

Design considerations:

large service vehicles should not be expected to reverse more than 40m
refuse vehicles should not be expected to reverse more than 20m
cars and smaller service vehicles should not be expected to reverse more than 25m
designers should note that poor provision for parking of large vehicles will affect accesses

You will need to provide vehicle tracking drawings to show that manoeuvring requirements (generally that a three-point turn within the carriageway is achievable) can be met. Where pedestrian flows are low and large vehicles infrequent, it may be acceptable to accommodate turning requirements within the whole highway envelope, subject to strengthening footways and margins.

Maintenance Access

Maintenance of all highway assets must be considered within the layout. A permeable layout will normally provide alternative routes in the event that a section of street has to be closed. Where main services or underground structures will be located in the carriageway of a cul-de-sac, the street must be wide enough to maintain access during maintenance.

All images of Kent and Medway highways credited to Sara Fletcher, Kent County Council.