In 1993 the Victorian Roadsides Conservation Committee published Streetwise – Creative directions for residential streets. A copy was found by one of our supporters, Cameron Roberts.
Ideally, a residential street should be a safe and pleasant place in which to walk or ride a bicycle, as well as providing access for vehicles. When a streetscape also invites children to play and neighbours to socialise, a sense of community identity and pride develops.
This publication is directed to all people in a position to advocate a wiser, more flexible approach to integrated streetscape design. It is a call for engineers and other design professionals to lift streetscapes out of the mediocre into places to be enjoyed and admired by their users. It is a plea for local government councillors to inform themselves and be responsive to imaginative ideas for alternative streetscapes. It is an appeal for residents to be aware of the part they can play in achieving street improvements.
Calming the traffic
If fast through traffic is eliminated, streets are safer for pedestrians and can become social spaces for play and relaxation. In the past decade, enlightened councils have increasingly been prepared to modify previously rigid practices of street engineering to accommodate environmental and social needs.
Traffic calming has the potential to reduce the car’s domination and improve the quality of the street environment for all users.
Street trees
Property values are usually higher in leafy, green, well-treed streets, reflecting people’s recognition that vegetation improves their surrounding environment and thus their quality of life. Beyond just creating pleasant surroundings, however, vegetation provides relief from the hot surfaces and hard lines of the built environment. Plants help to cool the air by generating moisture; they give shade a n d privacy, can be used a s a setting for children’s play, and attract birds and other wildlife by providing food and habitat.
Summary
Streetscape planning is an integral part of innovative schemes for medium and high density housing. The more efficient use of land detailed in the Codes will not only reduce costs – recent projects using similar standards have achieved savings of at least $6000 per lot but may also result in safer residential streets. Narrower street pavements, alternative drainage and undergrounding of services should maximise space available for landscaping.
Our view
Streetwise is a wonderful design guide, easily comparable with best-practice guides developed today, more than 30 years later. We encourage Councillors, Officers, and residents to read the guide and imagine how Yarra’s streets could be better – helping to build a more beautiful, liveable, and accessible city.
Published 27 June 2025