Boulevards separate very large streets into parallel urban realms, buffering the commercial or residential street edge from the high speed throughway by means of multiway operations and frontage roads. Many boulevards were built at the turn of the 20th century, but fell into disrepair or were redesigned to highway standards over the course of the century. Today, many cities are restoring these boulevards to their former grandeur or applying updated boulevard design standards to overbuilt urban arterials.
Recommendations
1The frontage road, especially in a residential context, benefits from traffic calming at intersections and midblock as well as pedestrian scale lighting and street trees. These enhancements preserve safe speeds for bicyclists and pedestrians, and encourage recreational and commercial activity.
2Boulevards require careful attention at intersections with cross traffic. Poor design can result in intersections that are confusing or unsafe for all street users. In general, frontage roads should be stop controlled, except in cases where volumes of cross traffic fail to provide sufficient gaps to pass. In such cases, require vehicles on the frontage road to turn or install a signal in conjunction with the through lanes.1
3Boulevard medians are often under-designed or inhospitable as public space. Intersection conflicts and delays undermine their use. Medians can be activated through the addition of shared use paths, seating, and recreational amenities. Consider the installation of curb extensions or midblock crossings to facilitate median use and access, or design the frontage road with a flush curb to create a seamless transition between the sidewalk, street, and median.
Transit providers may prefer to use the frontage road over the throughway to reduce risks of rear-end collisions and provide more direct access to adjacent homes and businesses. When used as a transit route, the frontage road should be designed with curb extensions and/or speed cushions and should be signalized to ensure the effectiveness of transit service.
4Frontage roads provide additional parking to local businesses and residents. Back-in angled parking may be an option if space is available.
Boulevards may benefit from access management strategies. At local or low-volume intersections, consider creating a T-intersection by extending the median and forcing turns. Through traffic and recreational median users both benefit from this configuration. Midblock pedestrian crossings should still be provided to preserve crossing opportunities
5A boulevard median with a shared use path should be designed with careful attention to intersection crossings and turning conflicts. Use access management strategies and turn requirements to eliminate these conflicts and ensure that potential intersection conflicts are well marked and highly visible to motorists turning off the throughway as well as to cross traffic.
Frontage roads create a parallel low-speed urban environment ideal for retail activity.
Low-speed, low-volume frontage roads are shared by multiple users.
Rows of trees make walking pleasant and provide shade in summer.
- For further information about traffic control and operations on multiway boulevards, see:
Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach, (Washington, D.C.: Institute of Transportation Engineers, 2010), 82. ↩︎