PLANNING AND DESIGN OF URBAN ROADS FOR USER NEEDS

Abstract

Roads are called as arteries of the city. They are not just the routes along which people in vehicles move from one part of the environment to another; nor are they just ribbons of asphalt or concrete built to accommodate vehicle, from which the outside environment can be observed through the windows like flickering images of a television screen. To a large extent the road with its setting of buildings or landscape is the outside environment. All these aspects of the surroundings come together in a person's perception and the road is just seen as a composition of all the elements in view. The road can be thought as analogous to room series: the surface is the floor; the walls are the building, the vegetation, the surrounding views, the roof top is the canopy of the trees or the building top and the residents are the different users. Like building, the road has users and like building this has to serve the needs of users, but unlike building, the road has a heterogeneous mix of users whose needs are not only different but also often conflicting. This makes the task of the road design very complex and demanding great sensitivity and imagination, this is more so in case of urban roads....