REGULATED STREETS: THE EVOLUTION OF STANDARDS FOR SUBURBAN RESIDENTIAL STREETS

The current surge of interest in reassessing the physical form of the American suburb is heightening awareness of the physical and social impacts of local streets on the environment. One hundred and fifty years of ideology are so thoroughly embedded in suburban street forms that challenges to traditional street layouts and design are often met with outright rejection. Yet these standards and regulations form a rigid framework that has resulted in uniform, unresponsive suburban environments. Does the existing suburban spatial pattern justify adherence to the rationality of standardization? How did residential street standards come to exist and how have they changed through time? Why did the design process and built environment become so dependent on these regulations and standards? This paper traces the historical evolution of suburban residential street standards through a review of professional and technical publications, as well as historical precedents. Five major periods of historical shifts in the development of suburban street guidelines and standards are identified: 1800-1870 (The Industrial Order), 1870-1930 (A Search for Social Response), 1930-1950 (The power of Control and Authority), 1950-1985 (Technocracy and Engineering), and after 1985 (A Return to Former Values). Each period is studied in terms of the forces that helped shape it and its significance in shaping present day street forms. These incentives are then analyzed according to five categories: Conceptual Framework, Design Prototypes, Administrative Acts, Construction Techniques, and Normative Specifications. We now need to approach street design and planning in an interdisciplinary way. Urban designers, planners, and engineers need to work together in developing new and revised standards that are more responsive to the diverse users of streets and that are more adaptable and responsive to varied social and geographic settings.