The latest Urban Design journal issue 173 – Winter 2025, edited by Jane Manning, publishes the extensive work produced by METREX Expert Group From Roads to Streets since its inception. Guest topic editor Paul Lecroart introduces the work underway across Europe to turn highways into green streets. The articles illustrate the story of eight metropolitan cities engaged in the challenging process of transforming large pieces of road infrastructure and their urban hinterlands.
Recycling segregated highway networks into green, walkable and cycle-friendly streets, with the support of socially equitable urban redevelopment and transport demand management policies, is increasingly becoming a way of adapting cities to social and climate related challenges. Highway strategies can be highly transformative for cities and regions, stimulating mixed use, polycentric, walkable and heathier urban environments for all. Contemporary challenges urge rethinking current planning paradigms, instruments and funding streams to meet the fast-changing challenges of the 21st century.
In March 2020, the Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas (METREX) launched the From Roads to Streets Expert Group. This is a platform for exchanging knowledge and experience on how to convert segregated urban highways into green living streets, and thereby transform the urban fringes of metropolitan cities and regions. The planning and environmental agency for the Paris Metropolitan Region – Institut Paris Region – is the lead partner. The METREX group has collaborated with other networks including the Urban Regeneration in the City Fringe EUROCITIES working group (with the City of Oslo as lead partner) and the URBACT RiConnect action planning network (with Barcelona Metropolitan Area as the lead). The three networks have joined forces to share expertise and stimulate strategic creative planning, learning together through case study analysis and hands-on workshop studios. Altogether about 20 cities and metropolitan regions in Europe have been involved in this four-year collaboration. A report bringing together the findings is planned for publication later in 2025, but this issue of the journal provides an early opportunity to look ahead at eight of the case study cities.
>> Download the PDF version of URBAN DESIGN #173
>> The METREX “From Roads to Streets” joint learning platform
Copyrights Design Journal and topic editor Paul Lecroart.
