Let’s improve where we live
Our residential streets can be much better, with more trees, lower speeds and space to relax, meet and socialise.
Livable Streets
Donald Appleyard’s seminal ‘Livable Streets‘ research in the 1960’s and 1970’s showed that social interaction improves when traffic is reduced.
Yarra policy
On 8 March 2022 council adopted a Local Liveable Streets document, with an aspiration to create high quality places where people want to spend time in, feel safe and feel connected to their local area and community. On 10 September 2024 Officers recommended that the programme be ceased, but Councillors resolved to continue it. In 2026 there is no mention of the programme on the council website.
Solutions
Residential streets can be improved by:
- adopting a 30 km/h speed limit, to reduce the speed of traffic
- adding modal filters at several locations within each neighbourhood, to reduce the volume of through-traffic
- planting more trees and street gardens
- using high quality materials and street design, learning from the Amsterdam Red Book
Guidance from the Netherlands
The Netherlands pioneered the use of street design to encourage drivers to slow down:
Guidance from the UK
The following image shows a ‘filtered street’ part of a new ‘filtered neighbourhood’ in the City of Manchester, UK.
Design proposals
Many of Yarra’s streets have a page on our website, some of those are highlighted below. Others can be found using the search box: