Interim operational and design strategies support the principle that streets can change. The ‘Measure, Trial, Refine’ method takes an action-oriented planning approach. With these three steps, interim initiatives are tested and evaluated to inform more refined decisions on permanent changes. Often labelled as ‘pilots’, ‘trials’, ‘tactical interventions’, ‘tactical urbanism’ or ‘pop-up projects’, these approaches are increasingly being recognised as a valuable tool for addressing a variety of problems facing towns and cities around the world.
The ‘measure, trial, refine’ approach is consistent with a ‘vision and validate’ approach when applied to roads and streets. Instead of using past behaviour to forecast future demand (‘predict and provide’), the ‘vision and validate’ approach looks first at what is the desirable future and validates a staged path to that future by ‘backcasting’ the steps to get there.
Taking a measure, trial, refine approach to changes on streets can mean getting improvements faster while still arriving at a permanent solution at a similar time as a conventional approach. The table below shows how an interim installation with analysis can happen after a concept design and replace conventional modelling to inform detailed design of the permanent solution. It typically also means the permanent solution is more robust and accepted by the community.
| Conventional approach | Measure, trial, refine | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Concept Plan / Outreach | Measure Concept Plan / Outreach |
| Year 2 | Modelling, approvals and Tendering | Trial Interim installation Impacts analysis |
| Year 3 | Detailed Design | Refine Detailed Design |
| Year 4 | Approvals and Tendering | Approvals and tendering |
| Year 5 | Construction | Construction |
An example of the ‘Measure, Trial, Refine’ approach was the trial of reallocation of space along The Strand, Dee Why as part of the NSW Government’s Streets as Shared Spaces Program in partnership with Northern Beaches Council. This trial has now been made a permanent reallocation of space on the street.
More detail about each step of the ‘measure, trial, refine’ approach is provided below.