Landscape and road legibility
Some ideas for an approach that brings together road safety and landscape
Following the publication in 2003 of a report collecting case studies dealing with «Road landscape and legibility», Sétra went thoroughly into this topic in order to create a methodological approach, bringing together road landscape, legibility and safety.
This document doesn’t intend to be a methodological guide, but it briefly highlights the main principles of an approach which brings together road landscape and safety through road legibility and which is based on the user’s perception of road
Following the publication in 2003 of a report collecting case studies dealing with «Road landscape and legibility», Sétra went thoroughly into this topic in order to create a methodological approach, bringing together road landscape, legibility and safety. This was done within the framework of the seminar «Road otherwise», which was organized by the General Road Directorate and where the problematic of the alteration of road design and equipment principles was tackled in order to change the user’s behaviour in a way that improves road safety.
This document doesn’t intend to be a methodological guide, but it briefly highlights the main principles of an approach which brings together road landscape and safety through road legibility and which is based on the user’s perception of road. This approach comes from the transposition of urban practises in interurban areas, which have been proved to be efficient for more than twenty years. It represents additional information regarding traditional road safety approaches, such as SURE (User Safety on the Existing Road Network), bringing new ideas which link together as much as possible infrastructure to the area which is served by the infrastructure
Background 4
Principles and concepts6Some terminology to assist understanding 6
Th e reasons for extending road legibility to the landscape 7
Th e basis of the “landscape and legibility” method and the working hypothesis 8
Th e user’s perception 9
Some examples of situations that are legible or not ... 11
The procedure for implementing a method that combines landscape and road safety 12
Diagnosis of the landscape sequence 12
Th e interpretation units 14
Th e concepts of constraint and comfort in the analysis of the landscape sequence 17
Improving legibility and directions for action19Examples of treatments 20
Bibliography 24
