Whether you’re an aspiring transportation planner, traffic engineer, planning commissioner or just want to know what your street would look like with a planted median and bus stops, StreetMix is an excellent web-based tool that lets you decide how to use the right of way of a street. Similar to Blockee, which we’ve highlighted in a previous post, StreetMix is incredibly simple to use and is especially helpful for anyone to experiment with the “what if” scenarios. Let’s take a look at just how easy it is to modify the use a roadway with StreetMix.
Below is a street that is 60 feet from curb to curb with 12 foot wide lanes– common in California…
…then with mere clicks of the computer you can modify lane widths and suddenly the street looks like this…
Now you can see what it would look like when lane widths are reduced…leaving enough room for bike lanes and the street is still 60 feet from curb to curb!
Scematics like the one above takes just a minute to create on StreetMix. Test your more elaborate ideas for your hometown – StreetMix lets you widen sidewalks, add planted medians, create dedicated bus lanes, narrow streets, widen street, and more.
Overall, StreetMix is a great demonstration tool that provides a visual of what a street would look like under various design schemes. Try using it to design complete streets that serve all modes of transportation. Give it a try– it’s a lot of fun!
