The Department for Transport commissioned CIHT in 2020 to revise and bring together Manual for Streets, and Manual for Streets 2. The Department is now taking forward the finalisation and publication of the revised Manual but cannot give a date for publication at present. Any queries on this project should be directed to the Department via the contact form at www.gov.uk/dft.
Streets and roads make up around three-quarters of all public space - their design, appearance, and the way they function have a huge impact on the quality of people's lives as well as economic and social vitality and environmental sustainability. The advice in the original Manual, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/manual-for-streets, and Manual for Streets 2, still stands and should be used by all those involved in the design and maintenance of streets.
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CIHT was awarded a grant by the Department for Transport to develop a revised Manual for Streets and WSP was appointed to support the development of the new document.
The revised Manual for Streets will bring together the existing Manual for Streets and Manual for Streets 2 and will be key guidance for anyone working in the highways and transportation sector. The new guidance 'Manual for Streets' will supersede Manual for Streets (2007) and Manual for Streets 2.
Manual for Streets (2007) and Manual for Streets 2 (2010) are two complementary guidance documents for local authorities on designing residential and busier urban streets respectively.
The current documents are available here:
There are good reasons why a new Manual for Streets is now being developed. The current documents are referred to by practitioners and developers across the sector, but their use is not widespread, the first document was published 19 years ago and a lot has happened since including changes to the planning framework.
Recent reports have also evidenced that streets and public spaces are not being build to a satisfactory standard and that updated and more widespread use of Manual for Streets is an important part of improving that.
A Housing Design Audit for England, also reported by the BBC, which surveyed 142 developments found that these were almost two-and-half times more likely to deliver high-scoring and good developments when making use of the Manual for Streets guidance. The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission also concluded in its final report that there is an important need to improve and update the government's guidance on street design.
The Department is now taking forward the finalisation and publication of the revised Manual but cannot give a date for publication at present. Any queries on this project should be directed to the Department via the contact form at www.gov.uk/dft.
CIHT's series of publications Streets and Transport in the Urban Environment is a range of guidelines based upon work carried out over the last few years in updating elements of the publication 'Transport in the Urban Environment' (1997) to assist professionals in implementing 'Manual for Streets'. In 2024 CIHT published Creating a Public Realm for All.
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