Cool looking streets

[Edward Skira]

Looking for ideas from around the world. Take a major street, one with cars, bikes, retail and lots of people, and redo it wholly. Give it a unique look that will make it stand out. Here are some that I found. Looking for more. Some of these are over the top. Ideas don't have to be this extreme. Looking at streetscaping, lighting, signage, monuments etc.

 

[afransen]

I think Toronto could use a lot more covered arcades as shopping streets.

 

[egotrippin]

Melbourne's laneways. Toronto could really look to Melbourne for inspiration on how to animate many of our laneways and small streets, specifically the micro-bars, (very) small businesses, cafes, patios and attractive brick/stone paving.

And building off of afransen's note about arcades, I definitely agree we could use more covered shopping streets. In fact, I say we start a petition to rebuild Toronto's original arcade in place of the dud that replaced it. Just look at Melbourne's Block Arcade:

 

[Edward Skira]

I'm looking for ideas for wider streets. Ones that need to accommodate at least two lanes of cars in each direction and bike lanes.

 

[afransen]

Not sure if it is 'cool', but here's an example from Rotterdam. The cycle path is separated from the road. The design guidelines are that 50 kph roads should have physically separated bike infrastructure, and I would think any road that is 4 lanes is probably faster than 30 kph.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

 

[Northern Light]

There's this from SF as a way to tame an 8-lane monster:

Taken from: https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2015/03/25/the-transport-benefits-of-street-trees-in-cities/

 

[Northern Light]

Here's another one from SF:

from: https://www.sfmta.com/blog/new-vision-embarcaderos-streetscape-concept-design-showcase

Its a conceptual re-do of The Embarcadero

​

 

[Northern Light]

Guelph has some concepts for re-doing its downtown streets.

Wyndham Street is pictured above.

The above taken from: https://guelph.ca/wp-content/uploads/Section_2_Streetscape_Manual.pdf

 

[Towered]

I'm not a big fan of angled parking.

 

[Northern Light]

I'm not a big fan of angled parking.

Neither am I.

But I still think the overall look is appealing and a radical improvement in the case of Guelph.

But I'd much rather ditch the parking and add cycle tracks!

 

[afransen]

Another option used in NL is having 'access roads' with the street parking and an access lane that is 30 kph that doubles as a cycle path. This keeps parking vehicles well away from the through lanes, and might help to reduce the need for a 4 lane street by maintaining flow.

Dutch service streets and cycling

In Dutch road design a street can either be a through street or a street with so-called “end destinations” (homes, businesses) but not both. This way of thinking about mono-purpuse streets was form…

bicycledutch.wordpress.com

 

[Edward Skira]

Some good ideas. Any ideas from a lighting perspective? Or signage? Or monuments indicating you're entering a special area? Yorkville is a cool example since they redid it a few years back. Looking for other ideas like that from a world perspective. There must be some cool ideas from around the globe.

 

[Northern Light]

Some good ideas. Any ideas from a lighting perspective? Or signage? Or monuments indicating you're entering a special area? Yorkville is a cool example since they redid it a few years back. Looking for other ideas like that from a world perspective. There must be some cool ideas from around the globe.

Chinatown Gates are certainly a big thing around the world.

This is Seattle's:

By Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3470946

 

[Northern Light]

This is the special lighting and paving used for parts of the Rodeo Drive shopping area in Beverly Hills, CA:

from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Via_Rodeo,_Beverly_Hills.jpg