What is a continuous footpath/footway/sidewalk?

Continuous footpaths are in the news after Dublin City Council launched a video outlining what’s expected from motorists at side street designs. So, what is a continuous footpath?

Basically, it’s a footpath that continues past a side street and across entrances, such as driveways or entrances to businesses. It is designed so that it is at the same level and uses the same design as the rest of the footpath.

An important point is that both the footpath’s level and its design pattern are continued through the junction.

Continuous footpaths are used between main roads and residential streets, housing estates, and low-volume shopping streets. The design is also used at junctions that would typically not be controlled by traffic lights.

The raised nature and making it clearly designed as pedestrian space. It is aimed at adding safety and giving priority to pedestrians.

This is an example of a continuous footpath from Dublin City Council’s Clontarf to City Centre Cycle and Bus Route — blink, and you’ll miss it in this short clip:

As a side note, if you Google ‘continuous footpaths’, you might mainly get coverage of that Dublin announcement and some Australian websites. The design is called continuous footways in the UK and continuous sidewalks in the US. So, if you only search with the word footpaths, you’ll likely miss out on a great Not Just Bikes video, The Dutch Solution for Safer Sidewalks—Continuous Sidewalks, as well as a report from Living Streets in the UK.

The concept is not totally new to Ireland, and the Clontarf route is not the only recent project that used the design. For example, it was used by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s Eden Park Road / Kilmacud Rd / Drummartin Road project:

It’s worth noting that tactile paving for blind and partially sighted people is used in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown project but not in the Dublin City project. The report from Living Streets, a UK charity which is focused on walkability and pedestrian safety, outlines a range of views on including or excluding tactile paving slabs on continuous footpaths.

The stakeholders Living Streets talked to ranged from saying that tactile paving should not be needed at continuous footways if these are working properly to people outlining that tactile paving is as much above navigation as it is safety — in other words, even if the continuous footpath is working safely, in the absence of a kerb or drop to carriageway level, the tactile paving is used by blind and partially sighted people for wayfinding.

On the opposite side of the road, as the Kilmacud Road example in the last image, are shops, so it uses paving slabs. It also gives a different example of a ramp from the carriageway level up to a continuous footpath:

The Clontarf to City Centre project uses a two-step design, which is commonly used in Copenhagen street design. On the other hand, in the Netherlands, there is usually just one ramp from the carriageway to the footpath.

Usually, this is a larger, steeper ramped kerb formed by pre-cast kerbs called “Dutch entrance kerbs” (which the British have copied with local suppliers providing them too).

This example is a continuous footpath with the entrance kerb:

This is a city centre example with a cycle path — cycle paths at this point are usually at grade or with a marginal kerb:

The design is also used where there is no cycle path or where there’s an on-street cycle lane:

Continuous footpaths away from junctions, such as at driveways, are somewhat different but worth covering, too.

In the Netherlands, continuous footpaths with standardised entrance kerb are also commonly used at the entrances to driveways or even often at other vehicle access points:

As this website covered in 2022, Irish guidelines say footpaths must remain level at driveways and minor side roads. This requirement is in the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets, which is mandatory, yet local authorities have largely not followed it.

Maybe unhelpfully, the Design Manual referred to the National Cycle Manual for visual images of how to deal with driveways. Including with kerbs:

Or with bitumen (tarmac-like), shown here in grey:

It can be done with concrete formwork too — although the results will likely vary more than a pre-made kerb:

Strangely, while the Clontarf to City Centre project uses continuous footpaths at side streets (including some reasonably busy ones, some private entrances and driveways have footpaths dished for motorists. Examples of these can be found between the Howth Road and the Alfie Byrne Road, including at a school.

At a stretch, if children are cycling from the cycle path into the school at this point, it might be an example of where dipping the footpath reduces the risk of children hitting the kerb and is therefore justified. But the treatment at driveways nearby does not have that excuse.

It is hard to see from images, but the problem with dipping footpaths is there is a fall in two directions, which can be disorienting for some people.