Continuous footway

A term used to describe an uninterrupted footway that extends across a side road.

Good continuous footways should be just that - continuous - without any change in design, or breaks, that might give the visual impression of priority to motor traffic. Drivers of motor vehicles should treat this area as part of the footway that they have to traverse to gain access to the side road (or to the main road, from the side road).

The section of footway crossing the side road should also be at the same level as the rest of the footway, meaning drivers have to travel up and over it - helping to keep vehicle speeds low.

Utrecht continuous footway

This type of treatment can be used in isolation, or combined with a cycleway, as in the example above, if motor traffic levels along the main road are sufficiently high to require one.

Here's an example of how this design can be applied, with a cycleway and footway.

Continuous cycle and footway

Continuous footways, however, are really only appropriate for junctions with low levels of motor traffic turning in and out of them - around 2000 vehicles per day. Measures should therefore be taken to reduce motor traffic levels on these kinds of side streets. This could be achieved, as in the example above, by a closure to through traffic, or alternatively through the careful use of opposed one-way flow.