New suburban development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is already quite walkable by American standards. Many communities have sidewalks and reasonably connected street networks. Some also have trails that attract many walkers and cyclists, although people often still have to drive to reach them. Many developments also use laneways to avoid front driveways and garages.
But the local streets themselves are still too wide, too open, and not at a human scale.
Wide street rights-of-way and large front setbacks make local streets appear very wide, too open, and too large to be at a human scale. They also push people walking farther from the buildings and front yards.
Where homes are accessed from the front, driveways and parked cars occupy a large part of the frontage. This is especially true on the typical 50-foot lots, where the garage and driveway take up a significant share of the street frontage.
Where laneways are used, this problem is avoided, but because so much of the travel is by car, the back becomes the actual front, and the front is barely used.
The blocks are long because introducing more streets has high costs in additional land.
Rather than one street type for all local access, the design uses a few street types based on specific needs. The result is that most streets can be smaller and quieter than a standard local street.
Support Streets are the most conventional streets in the plan. They have two traffic lanes and separate sidewalks.
They are used where through traffic is needed. They also accommodate much of the visitor parking, so they are slightly wider than a standard local street.
Most local streets are in the form of Minor Streets. They branch from the Support Streets, and laid out to allow continuous pedestrian travel while preventing through traffic; also, each street is short and has a small number of homes. As a result, there is a very low volume of traffic, and the short travel distances make very low speeds acceptable.
These characteristics make it possible to design the streets as shared streets – streets with a predominantly pedestrian character where cars may enter and use the same paved area.
Minor Streets also allow homes to sit closer to the street. Front yards become more usable because they face a street with very little car traffic and no through movement, rather than a wide local street shaped by driveway access, parked cars, and moving traffic.
These streets have a human scale, and are also very efficient in their use of land. Since they do not have separate sidewalks, they do not result in the typical repeating curb cuts.
The intimate character makes them a social space. This makes front yards and porches usable spaces, and eliminates the need to push the house away from the street to protect from the impacts of traffic.
The Minor Streets connect at their ends so emergency and large service vehicles can move forward through the block.
A few streets in the network function like local trails as they are fully pedestrian.
These streets come in two forms: where they provide vehicle emergency or service access they are relatively wide; where they do not need to accommodate even emergency and service vehicle access, they are more compact.
What makes it possible to afford these streets is that the overall layout is very compact, and that they fill utilitarian roles too: in accommodating emergency access, and in providing frontage to homes.
They can also connect to the area’s trail system, making it easier to reach on foot or by bicycle rather than by car.
In the comparison, the homes and backyards remain the same size as in the reference condition, and the homes keep two-car garages. The layout also provides about one visitor parking space per home.
The visitor parking is mainly located on Support Streets and in small dedicated parking on the Minor Streets. The proposed layout provides fewer spaces per home, but it remains a generous visitor parking ratio because those spaces are shared across the block.
Support Streets and Minor Streets accommodate emergency and service access. Some Active Streets also accommodate those vehicles where required. Waste collection uses the streets designed for service access.
The alternative approach uses land more efficiently. This is in spite of the smaller blocks, the introduction of the trail-like Active Streets, and a mix that includes some wider lots.
The efficiency comes from both streets and lots. Minor Streets are more compact, while the lots are shallower because homes can sit closer to the street.
The alternative layout still includes many lots wider than the standard condition. These wider lots can support garage and parking arrangements that are desirable in the Dallas market, without making the garage the main feature of the front elevation.
Together, these streets create a compact, human-scale local environment where walking and cycling feel natural. The development still works for the DFW market.