Residential lane
A quiet, narrow street aligned to the rear of residential properties for service access, paired with parallel residential streets that can be designed for safer and more continuous links for walking and cycling.
Urban residential lane
Urban residential lanes are two-way, very low-volume, very slow speed service streets to the rear of residential lots. They are a popular cycle route in busy areas and often function like a shared zone.
The street reserve is approximately 6–7m wide, with no car parking.
These lanes are common in pre-war neighbourhoods, and recently in new residential subdivisions for blocks with narrow lots to avoid garage dominance on front streetscape or serve access-denied properties.
In residential areas, laneways can make active transport on facing streets safer by removing the need for driveways and eliminating conflict between walking or cycling and private vehicles.
The design solutions library includes a full list of appropriate design solutions for residential lanes.
Suburban residential lane
In suburban contexts, residential lanes do typically have a larger street reserve, 7-8m, with no car parking. They provide rear access to properties, often narrow lots with terraces or semi-detached houses. Some laneways feature secondary dwellings such as 'Fonzie’ flats with an address fronting the laneway.
Common Issues
- overly wide lanes that encourage inappropriate speeds and car parking
- long, straight legs without design details to reduce speeding
- reliance on No Stopping or No Parking signs and pole clutter
- inadequate garbage bin storage within lots
- conflict between front and back lots on opposite sides of the lane
- overly generous garage setbacks
- high maintenance landscaping
- continuous roadway surfaces at intersections and large corner radii, implying vehicle priority
- lack of passive surveillance
- lack of safe priority crossings at intersections and mid-block.
Design solutions
[1] Shared zone (NSW Speed Zoning Standard, TS 03631)
[2] Continuous footpath treatment (Continuous Footpath Treatments, TS 02667)
[3] Lower speed limit (NSW Speed Zoning Standard, TS 03631)
The design solutions library includes a full list of appropriate design solutions for residential lanes.