Connector street
A local street that connects neighbourhoods, linking residential areas with local destinations such as centres, schools, and transport hubs.
Connector streets are two-way streets that connects neighbourhoods and commonly include local bus routes. In the urban structure, these streets link non-residential destinations such as shops, schools and shopping centres.
Single travel lanes with car parking lanes on both sides and property access distinguish this high order street from main road types.
Urban context
Footbridge Boulevarde, Wentworth Point
Livingstone Road, Marrickville
- Typical street reserve: 20m
- Property access: properties and access arrangements vary depending on the era of development. Occasionally connector streets have evolved to higher volumes, retaining a legacy of driveway rights.
- Car parking: variable depending on land uses, built form and density.
- In traditional urbanism these streets form the network of highest order streets linking districts. In centres they transitions to a high street type.
- Occasionally a neighbourhood street with line markings will have evolved to a connector role.
- Design elements: fully paved in highly urbanised areas, landscaped verges elsewhere. May include formalised spaces like car parking bays or cycle paths.
Suburban context
- Typical street reserve: 20m
- Property access: traditionally front access to residential lots. However recently also being planned as access denied, requiring rear-accessed lots or extra parallel frontage roads.
- Car parking: variable depending on built form and density. In low demand areas with few parked cars, street appears as four lanes wide.
- Use In late 20th century subdivisions, commonly a ‘collector road’ as the route within an estate. Recently, often the connector role between districts or suburbs is fulfilled by access-denied, higher order roads without built form frontage.
- Design elements: upright kerbs, commonly painted lines to delineate travel lanes. Wider reserves often have designated cycle or shared paths, landscaped medians or wider verges.
Drawings
Section (1990s suburban example)
Connector street section.
Plan (1990s suburban example)
Connector street plan
Common issues
- Footpath limited to one side only requires people to make extra crossings or deters walking.
- Where car parking demand is low, connector streets appear to have excessively wide carriageways with no travel lanes, leading to speeding.
- Streets with buses, higher speeds and without cycle provision deter people cycling on roads to schools or local shops.
- Frequent side-street crossings with large-kerb radii, awkward pram ramps and long pedestrian crossing distances deter walking and cycling by children on paths, particularly on routes to school.
- Roundabouts are common, even for relatively minor T junctions. Roundabouts without easy and direct crossings deter people walking despite being a main local route.
- Often being the busiest street for a neighbourhood, with wide carriageways and without marked crossing points, a connector street can be perceived as unsafe for children to cross.
- In some areas, routes performing a connector role have been oversized as dual carriageway. When built with access denied, with high speeds and slip lanes at junctions, these street become a different type.
Design solutions
Low complexity
- Tree planting in verge to maximise canopy for shade and reduce heat island effect
- Continuous footpath treatment to reinforce pedestrian priority at driveways
- Painted threshold to reinforce pedestrian priority at intersections
Medium complexity
- Trees placed in parking lane to maximise canopy and narrow the perceived corridor
- Trees placed in medians to maximise canopy and narrow the perceived corridor
- Raised crossing to reinforce pedestrian priority at intersections
- Separated cycleway near heavy vehicles to reduce conflict between vehicles of differing sizes
High complexity
- Intersection treatments (information to be provided in the next version of this guide)