City road networks

Roads and highways play a vital role in cities, delivering considerable value to communities and the economy. They provide safe and affordable multimodal transport options for everyone, providing seamless connection to goods and services. At the same time, urban transport networks must reduce congestion and the contribution they make to carbon emissions and poor air quality.

We take a multidisciplinary approach to our roads and streets work in cities, looking at how road based travel connects with other modes such as rail, and bringing the full breadth of Arup services to city road clients.

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How we can help

We help city road and transport agencies and authorities to design, develop, maintain and optimise road networks.

Planning city streets

We take a holistic approach to planning urban road and street networks, working on a range of projects to optimise existing infrastructure while finding ways to alleviate the impact of historical planning choices.

Road in the UK with street furniture to slow down traffic

Our goal is to help clients to identify how to serve a more complex mix of users, from families to freight drivers and from pedestrians and cyclists to electric vehicle users.

Securing funding

We help clients to define a planning approach that will secure funding. Our plans provide an integrated definition of the value that can be achieved and build confidence in a proposal’s overall viability and strategic case.

Preliminary feasibility studies

At the feasibility stage, Arup supports clients with a full multidisciplinary service, comprising the economic case, traffic modelling, as well as the physical engineering, geotechnical and structural needs of a proposed city road scheme. Our insights lead to a stronger, better supported business case.

Community engagement

City road networks are always an issue of great public interest. Although public consultation requirements vary from country to country, we believe they always strengthen a project’s likelihood of long-term success. We carry out targeted engagement with those directly affected by roads, using these insights to shape and define the project’s form. We also offer visualisation and virtual engagement services, to help educate the whole community about a proposal.

Reconnecting segregated communities

Historically, many urban road networks were developed without regard for marginalised communities, creating physical division and exposing certain groups to poorer air quality. Arup plans scheme redevelopments with the aim of addressing these inequities and reconnecting communities within an urban area, strengthening social cohesion.

More about our work reconnecting communities in the USA.

Case study

Arup to conduct landmark Highways to Boulevards Study

Throughout the 20th century, US highways were built through neighborhoods across the country, resulting in the displacement of homes and businesses, disproportionately impacting communities of color.

The Southern California Association of Governments selected Arup to conduct a landmark Highways to Boulevards Study. The study aims to identify opportunities to reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating transportation facilities — such as highways or railways that create barriers to community connectivity including mobility, access, or economic development — and offering a path for communities to reknit to better fit the context of their surroundings and serves all people.

Designing city road networks

Today, city road network design is informed by a wider range of transport, social and economic goals, leading to a network that is safe, easy to navigate and balances the needs of all road users.

Example of a road in the UK optimised for pedestrians

We design city road schemes around community needs, not just to address capacity, maintenance or congestion issues.

This has become increasingly important as cities simultaneously densify, tackle pollution and meet net zero goals. During the design phase, Arup helps in a number of ways:

Optimising and consolidating the network

We design city road schemes around community needs, not just to address capacity, maintenance or congestion issues. This means shaping schemes to encourage a mix of road use and travel options. It also means ensuring existing networks are shaped to suit a town or city’s current and future priorities and strategy. For example, our work designing active travel schemes around the world puts safety at the heart of how different road users interact on one network.

Reconnections to nature

Today, many road schemes present valuable opportunities to reconnect urban areas with open spaces and nature. Our work on the Presidio Parkway in California, demonstrates what’s possible when bold thinking and a commitment to the environment are allowed to inform road planning. The completed scheme has led to 14 new acres of new community parkland while revitalising road connections from the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco.

Case study

Presidio Parkway

The gateway to the Golden Gate Bridge since 1936, the ageing Doyle Drive was no longer capable of serving its 100,000 daily users. In designing a replacement, careful consideration was needed to minimise disruption for commuters and create a long-term transport solution in harmony with the landscape with minimal impacts on the Presidio National Park.

The simple design idea that united everyone was to create not a highway, but a parkway. To create something capable of improving everyone’s experience, we worked closely with sponsors and stakeholders to develop the design concept for Presidio Parkway. We also developed a robust financial and project delivery plan that was affordable and minimised short- and long-term risks.

The Presidio Parkway project was one of the first in the country to incorporate extensive sustainability features, setting it on a path to becoming the first Greenroads-Certified highway in the country.

Optimising city road networks

Optimising complex, existing city networks often means taking a step back to see how a network truly serves today’s users, including how it connects to other transport modes as one cohesive system.

We have provided support to think tank Centre for London to look at what the next generation of road pricing in London could look like, with the aim of providing advice to guide future leaders about the direction and principles of road pricing in the city.

Defining the strategy

Our work in this space starts with understanding strategy and objectives. In every town or city, the existing road network will reflect a mix of historical decisions, physical constraints, earlier planning trends and decisions and many other factors. Cities and towns are not static though – and our strategy work aims to bring together the many dynamics that shape life and work in a location, and help clients to develop a strategy that reflects the future experience they want to achieve.

Case study

Galway Transport Strategy

Galway City Council commissioned Arup to design a city-wide integrated transport strategy as the city looks to introduce a more sustainable transport system that will safeguard its vibrant city centre while future-proofing its economy.

The strategy aims to remove non-essential motorised traffic from the city centre, freeing up space for public transport, as well as walking and cycling, while supporting the long-term economic growth of Galway and the West Region. Prioritising other transport modes over private car traffic within the core city centre and the creation of alternative traffic routes around the city form the basis of the strategy, placing the movement of people and goods ahead of individual vehicles.

Responding to incidents

Sometimes optimisation is about ensuring quick responses to identifying and mitigating events which impact traffic flow, for example traffic accidents or weather events. We are developing and using the latest digital road management platforms to support decision making for Virginia Department of Transportation through their Artificial Intelligence Decision Support System project, allowing for fast multiagency responses and preventive measures on the network.

Supporting behavioural change

‘Modal shift’ – the desire to encourage the community to use alternatives to private cars – is a priority for many cities, and can be achieved using both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ strategies. Mobility pricing is increasingly on the table as one such strategy and our focus is always on designing schemes with clear objectives and ease of user for the road user, for example our work supporting Think Tank Centre for London as they considered what next generation mobility pricing could look like in the city of London.