Inclusive design at continuous footways: Literature review - OCTOBER 2023

In the text on blended side road entry treatments indicates that continuing the footway across the mouth of the junction without any change makes it “easier and safer for pedestrians to cross by reducing the speeds of turning vehicles, shortening the length of the crossing and providing a level route” and “the continuous footway strongly indicates to drivers that they should to give way to pedestr. [...] These characteristics include: • the continuity of the footway and any cycle track without changes in material or height, • the use of special entrance kerbs and the lack of any visible curves, created by kerbs, that might suggest a road end, and • the location being one where it serves as a gateway indicating the subordinate character of the carriageway beyond the transition point. [...] In a further numerical analysis they conclude that “a high proportion of the variability in the number of forced yields is explained by the flows turning right in, left in and right out” (identifying that the fourth option, a left turn out, means that a driver “will need to focus on just the nearside main road flow, and the people crossing the continuous footway”). [...] An option is also indicated in the text, and in an image, in which the crossing point for the footway and cycle track is offset by up to 5m from the main road, with the implication that the ‘storage space’ is designed and marked in a conventional manner for a section of carriageway (thus having visible corners). [...] In a short description of continuous footways the ‘Cycling Embassy of Great Britain’ [25] specifies that a continuous footway should not show any breaks or changes in design that might give the visual impression of priority to motor traffic, and that it should be at the same level as the rest of the footway.