Global Street Design Guide

“For more than a century, street life was what grew through the cracks in pavement–a liveliness that thrived despite the asphalt and traffic. The Global Street Design Guide starts from an opposite principle, that we can’t wait for streets to produce human outliers that survive against the odds, but that we must instead design them to make active, engaging street life inevitable.”–Jan Gehl, Urbanist, Architect, and author of “Cities for People”“Cities are undergoing a street design revolution, and the Global Street Design Guide is the first document to capture the brave new world of strategies that are transforming cities on every continent. Drawn from life and sourced with real-world examples, this guide establishes a new categorical imperative for safer streets that level the playing field for transit, bike riders, and pedestrians. It creates a new international language for urban livability, mobility, and economy.”–Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates, former Transportation Commissioner for New York City“Smart street design improves lives in so many ways, from reducing emissions that cause harmful air pollution and drive climate change, to making streets safer and helping local businesses. The Global Street Design Guide is a powerful resource that can help cities around the world become safer and stronger.”–Michael R. Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City“By recognizing the joyful complexity of urban life, as well as the reality that different nations and cultures have different resources and needs, the [Global Street Design Guide] inevitably debunks the one-size-fits-all street design manuals that originated in the mid-20th century and should now be put in the dustbin of history…The Global Street Design Guide, if adopted and applied, will dramatically improve…standards and practices in cities around the world.” – “Nature of Cities”“This invaluable guide brings together extremely useful information and metrics that can assist city administrations, urban designers, planners, landscape architects, and the public in forging new directions in street design…the Global Street Design Guide should find its way onto the shelves of all design and planning firms responsible for improving urban streets, regardless of where they practice.” – “ASLA’s The Dirt”

Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and launched in 2014, the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) focuses on the critical role of streets around the world. GDCI is committed to raising the state of the practice for street design and transportation by building a common vision, sharing data, peer-to-peer exchanges and regular communication among international cities.