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Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines

ITE to Update Neighborhood Street Guidelines Recommended Practice

This effort responds to the growing practitioner needs for addressing more consistent development of pedestrian and bicycle facilities on local streets as part of comprehensive street development strategy in the context of safe systems approaches to design.  In addition, ITE is going through a series of actions to review and update (or rescind) older publications that may no longer represent current practice in transportation planning, safety, and engineering. As a result, ITE is starting and up update to the Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines recommended practice (RP-033) issued in March 2010.

About the Recommended Practice

Neighborhood and local streets represent the largest share of road miles in the transportation network. The vast majority of pedestrian facilities are on these streets. The past ITE recommended practices many times focused upon vehicle centric design guides. This update is intended to refresh the value of the vehicle guides by advancing the guidance for walking facilities and incorporate more recent perspective on bicycle facilities to reflect the greater attention on safe system approaches and active transportation.

The committee will be reviewing all prior ITE recommended practices, many of which were identified for review or rescinded by the ITE IBOD in December 2025.  Those include:

  • Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach,
    March 2010 (RP-036)
  • Traditional Neighborhood Development Street Design Guidelines, October 1999, Rescinded November 2025 (RP-027)
  • Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities, January 1998, Rescinded
    November 2025 (RP-026)
  • Guidelines for Residential Subdivision Street Design, 1993,
    Rescinded November 2025 (RP-011)
  • Guidelines for Driveway Location and Design, 1987, Rescinded November 2025 (RP-006)

The updated recommended practice will also include consideration from other professional organizations works (such as AASHTO, APWA, APA, and NACTO) along active recommended practices that have potential collateral value to the updated Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines, such as Multimodal Transportation Impact Analysis for Site Development, January 2023 (RP-020)

Call for Volunteers – Recommended Practice Committee, Authors, and Reviewers

ITE is seeking volunteers with experience with neighborhood streets to support the development of the update to the Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines recommended practice.

A formal Recommended Practice (RP) Committee will oversee and lead the development and approval of this document. RP Committee members will collaborate to draft, review, and refine the guidance through ITE’s consensus-based development process. ITE strives to maintain balanced representation across all RP committees to ensure diverse perspectives and expertise. Participation is open to ITE members and non-members representing:

  • Public agencies
  • Consulting firms
  • Academia
  • Development interests
  • Other organizations with a material interest in neighborhood street planning and design

ITE is also seeking a broader group of volunteers to support the effort as subject matter experts, contributing authors, or external reviewers. These volunteers will help draft sections of the document or provide review and comment on draft materials, but they will not serve as part of the formal RP Committee. These individuals will help to provide historical perspectives and collaboration between and within ITE councils and committees, as well as with outside associated organizations

If you are interested in any of these roles, please complete the RP Interest Form by July 31, 2026. Applicants will be asked to submit a less than one-page résumé, a brief statement of interest, a summary of relevant experience, and contact information (no more than 500 words total).

Questions regarding this recommended practice may be directed to Caitlin Cook at ccook@ite.org.