Street Design Guidelines for Barron Park Neighborhood, Palo Alto, California, USA

Street Design Guidelines for Barron Park Neighborhood

One of the most noticeable characteristics of Barron Park is the absence of sidewalks, and the large majority of residents have indicated that they oppose installing sidewalks, except in a few situations.

In consultation with the Barron Park residents, the City produced a set of design guidelines for area streets. These guideline provide a number of options to address various situations and problems: The goal is to provide a more coherent appearance for the neighborhood. These guidelines are referred to colloquially as Curbs and Gutters, because the major decisions relate to these features. When a street is to have major work done, the residents will be consulted about the options they prefer.

Gutters: more than just drainage

On of the big problems with many current Barron Park streets is that the asphalt pavement is breaking up along the edges. The primary cause of this the stress on the pavement created by cars going over this edge (typically for parking). Another component is water seeping under and into the edge (I will spare you the details).

These uneven edges are potential safety problems, because they tend to force pedestrians, and especially bicyclists, away from the side of the road and more into the main traffic lanes.

Gutters help prevent the break-down of the edge of the asphalt pavement by providing a stronger edge and by blocking much of the infiltration of water.

Version Info: $Revision: 1.6 $ $Date: 2002/02/17 00:52:05 $