The Matrix
North Yorkshire Council has developed a Matrix to enable Developers and engineers to determine which of the available design standards is appropriate. The Matrix enables a professional judgement to be made given the location of the site thus establishes which standard is appropriate.
The Matrix It is based upon the place and movement matrix in Manual for Streets and balances the emphasis needed to be given to the “place” function against the “movement” characteristics for the particular location. The matrix has been prepared to take account of the particular characteristics of NYC’s highway network. A version of the matrix giving examples of locations on the NYC network and where they would fit in the matrix is available.
The Two Standards
The two standards the matrix considers are Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) and Manual for Streets (MfS):
DMRB
This is produced by HA as the mandatory design standard for their Strategic Road Network (SRN). It is also used by most local highway authorities, including NYC, as the appropriate design standard for major roads. The main emphasis of the standard is providing a safe road network for vehicles. Carriageways designed to this standard are defined as “roads”.
MfS
The reference to MfS is a generic term which is applied to two documents, MfS1 and MfS2. MfS1 was produced as a more appropriate standard to apply to light traffic residential roads. MfS2 expanded on the MfS1 principles and the importance of the public place and applied this to high streets and lightly trafficked lanes in rural areas. It also indicates the strict application of DMRB is rarely appropriate in urban areas. It also bases its stopping distances on research which gives different major road or “y” stopping distances from DMRB. Carriageways designed to this standard are known as “streets”.
Approval
The Matrix was approved for use at the 6 November 2012 meeting of the North Yorkshire Executive where it was adopted. The formal resolution is as follows:
“Resolved – The matrix is accepted as the appropriate mechanism for guiding engineering judgement in determining when DMRB or MfS standards should apply and is agreed by the Executive as policy.”
Road types | No place status | Some place status | Significant place status |
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A Roads NYC categories 2, 3a and 3b |
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
MfS standards
The LHA will have a limited palette of acceptable carriageway layouts for this category of road due to high volumes of traffic. |
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B and C Roads All NYC categories |
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
MfS standards
|
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Unclassified Roads All NYC categories |
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
DMRB standards
|
MfS standards
|
MfS standards
|
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Estate Roads NYC categories 4a and 4b |
DMRB standards
|
MfS standards
|
MfS standards
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