Neighborhoods have been centers of concern for city planning and urban theory since the late nineteenth century. According to scholars and activists such as Ttinnies (1887) in Vienna, and Jane Adams (Trolander 1987) and later Robert Park and his associates in Chicago (Park 1925; Wirth 1938), the social problems of the large city stemmed from the deterioration of local community ties which had been based on frequent face-to-face meetings, and their replacement by casual businesslike interactions among strangers. They believed that a major part of the problem was the blurring of clear boundaries between settlements as they were engulfed in rapidly growing metropolitan areas. Units of settlement ceased to have an identifiable structure to which people could relate.

Boulevards, we believe, should be reconsidered – classic, multifunctional boulevards, with side access roads and strong lines of trees in medians.

These days, planners and designers accept the idea that streets should serve one primary traffic function – such as local traffic, collector traffic, through traffic, or fast, long-distance traffic. With persuasion (which is readily accepted) from engineering and public works professionals, we often design for these single purposes.

But life and what happens on our streets is not so simple, nor should it be. Boulevards often represent excellent transportation and design solutions to complex urban movement and land-use issues.

During the 1980s in Los Angeles, participating in the design of a major new development through which a high-volume arterial road passed, we proposed side access roads to serve the adjoining commercial and residential properties and to slow and calm local traffic, basically a boulevard configuration. However, we discovered that lane width standards for the new access roads were so wide as to take away the local quality desired, and we were advised that intersections along such streets would be exceedingly dangerous. Solving the problems would take so much space under operative standards and norms that the idea died.

During field research for the book Great Street, considerable time was spent on a variety of boulevards, especially observing intersections and the nature of motorist and pedestrian movements there. These streets did not appear to be particularly dangerous, people simply adapted to what was there and did so safely. Perhaps most importantly, these streets were delightful places to be. Pedestrians, local motorists and those passing through quickly seemed to get along together.

The focus of our concern is a specific type of boulevard, the multiple roadway boulevard, which is designed to separate through traffic from local traffic. It consists of a central roadway, generally at least four lanes wide and used for fast and non-local traffic, and tree-lined medians, access lanes and walkways on either side.

This study and report is about boulevard streets.

It starts with a pro-boulevard bias born of experience, a strong suspicion that boulevards have been getting a "bum rap," and, moreover, that they often represent excellent transportation/design solutions to complex urban movement and land use issues.

During the 1980s in Los Angeles, participating in the design of a major new development through which a high-volume arterial road passed, we proposed side access roads to serve the adjoining commercial and residential properties to be developed on each side and to slow and calm the local traffic. Lane-width standards for the new access roads were so wide as to take away the local quality desired and, more importantly, we were advised that intersections along such streets would be exceedingly dangerous. Solving the problems would take so much space under operative standards and norms that the idea died. Later, proposals to modify an existing arterial street in San Francisco into a boulevard faced the same objections -- primarily, dangerous intersections and travel and parking lanes held to be too narrow. Finally, during the field research for the book "Great Streets," we had occasion to spend considerable time on a variety of boulevard streets, mostly in Paris and Barcelona. Spending hours at intersections, observing them and the nature of motorist and pedestrian movements, they did not appear to be particularly dangerous. Rather, the overwhelming traffic characteristic at the intersections was adaptation. People simply adapted to what was there and did so safely. Perhaps most importantly, these streets were delightful places to be. They were, and are, peopled. Pedestrians, local motorists, and those passing through as fast as they can all seemed to get along together. And so, this study was born.

This study and report was born of experience with boulevards and -- following research on the safety characteristics of such roads -- driver and pedestrian behavior on them, their physical design quantities, and existing standards and norms that effectively govern their construction, develops a comprehensive set of design guidelines for their future construction and use.