A Policy on Design of Urban Highways and Arterial Streets

A Policy on Design of Urban Highways and Arterial Streets from the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) offers a comprehensive framework for the design of urban highways and arterial streets. It addresses alignment, cross-sectional features, interchanges, signalization, pedestrian accommodation and urban corridor planning in the context of arterial networks, defining the functional classification of urban roadways and setting out design controls appropriate to high-volume urban traffic. Its significance lies in formalising the standards for urban arterial design at a time when motorised traffic and city growth were in rapid expansion.

Engineers, planners and state highway agencies of that era used this volume as a key reference for determining design speeds, auxiliary lanes, frontage road layouts, weaving sections, and integrated street-highway systems in urbanised regions. The manual captures the state-of-practice in U.S. highway engineering in the early 1970s, and remains of interest to historians of transportation infrastructure and to professionals revisiting earlier design assumptions.

For libraries and professionals collecting foundational road design literature, A Policy on Design of Urban Highways and Arterial Streets is a rare resource reflecting mid-20th-century thinking in policy and practice for urban highway engineering. While later editions and newer guides have evolved, this book remains a historic benchmark for the evolution of urban arterial design.