Sustrans Design Manual. Handbook for cycle-friendly design

Sustrans, April 2014. — 36 p.This document is part of a suite of technical design guidance on active travel being developed by Sustrans. There is much useful material already available from a range of organisations, and this guidance from Sustrans aims to provide detailed technical advice on key issues around on and off highway cycle infrastructure whilst signposting users to this developing library of further resources.
The Sustrans guidance library will be largely web based and will be regularly updated with new examples including the latest innovative and experimental schemes.
The full guidance will be structured to comprise:
handbook for cycle friendly design
main technical guidance document on designing for cycling, divided into chapters
more detailed guidance on selected topics, both technical and relating to strategies, monitoring etc
technical case studies
media resources, including a photo library and training materials
frequently asked questions
This handbook contains a concise illustrated compendium of technical guidance relating to cycling: it can stand alone as a ‘tool box’ of ideas but also links to a library of relevant on line resources. It is very visual but contains the essential technical details, and was inspired by earlier guidance produced by the City of Edinburgh Council.
This element of the guidance is available in printed format as it is intended for widespread use as a readily available digest of the key elements of design guidance, which can be used on-site by planners and engineers.
The structure of this guidance is illustrated in the contents page, and broadly follows the following sequence:
a summary of the key principles and processes for a user-focused design
wider considerations of urban design and other measures to improve the general highway design for cyclists and pedestrians
on-carriageway provision for cyclists on links and junctions
cycle provision off the carriageway, whether cycle tracks alongside the road or traffic free routes away from the road, including crossings
routes in rural areas
associated design issues including cycle parking, signing, integration with public transport and the design of new developments
the maintenance and management of routes