Site Access Study

Every project has less frontage than it needs. Cars, deliveries, refuse, fire apparatus, utilities and the front door all want the same edge, and the ones that lose are the ones nobody listed at the start.

Workflow

Step 1. List every arrival before looking at the site

Ask, in one message:

1. Who and what arrives here? Go beyond cars: pedestrians, cyclists, transit, drop-off, taxis and rideshare, accessible parking, service deliveries, refuse and recycling, moving vans, coaches, fire apparatus, utility access, landscape maintenance, window cleaning, and anything this programme generates specifically.
2. For each: how often, at what hours, and what vehicle?
3. What frontages does the site have, and what is on each: transit, bike lane, crossings, trees, hydrants, poles, existing curb cuts?
4. What does the jurisdiction control on each frontage, and is any of it a different authority? A state route or a rail crossing has a different owner.
5. What does the fire department require, and have they been asked?
6. What is already fixed: an existing curb cut, a required transit easement, a building line?

The list in question 1 is the study. Anything not on it will arrive anyway and take frontage from something that was planned.

Step 2. Trace each arrival, public way to destination

One row per arrival:

Arrival	Frequency	Vehicle	From which street	Through what	Ends at	Leaves how

Leaves how is a column because reversing is the constraint that kills schemes. Note every movement that requires reversing, and whether it reverses into or out of the public way.

Step 3. Find the frontage competition

Lay the arrivals over the frontage and report what wants each part of it:

Frontage segment	Wants it	Conflicts	Who wins, and what it costs the loser

Then count the curb cuts required and say plainly that each one is a permission, not a design decision. Jurisdictions limit the number, the width and the spacing, and they refuse. A scheme with three curb cuts on one frontage should know now.

Step 4. Work fire access as its own pass

Fire access is the constraint that most often forces a scheme change and it is usually checked last:

• Where does apparatus need to get to, and how close to the building?
• Can it get there, turn, and leave? Is a turnaround needed?
• What are the grade and surface loading requirements, and does the proposed surface carry them? A fire lane over a podium or a landscaped deck is a structural requirement.
• Where are the hydrants and the fire department connection, and are they within reach of each other and of apparatus?
• Does the fire access route conflict with anything else on the list: parking, the accessible route, the loading movement, a gate?
• Has the fire department been asked, and what did they say? Log it as verbal or written.

Step 5. Work the accessible route across every arrival

For each arrival that involves people: where do they get out, and can they reach the entrance? The accessible route from accessible parking and from the drop-off gets traced, and every place it crosses a vehicle route gets named. Point at civil-drawing-review for the slopes and at the accessibility standard for the requirements.

Step 6. Report

• The arrivals list, with any that were added during the study marked, because a late addition is the finding.
• The frontage competition table.
• Every movement that requires reversing, and where.
• Every curb cut, with a note that each is a permission.
• The fire access findings, separately.
• Every conflict between an accessible route and a vehicle route.
• What has to be confirmed and by whom: the jurisdiction, the fire department, the traffic engineer, the civil engineer with swept path software.
• What has to be asked before the scheme is fixed rather than after.

Step 7. Save, if asked

Ask whether to write the study to a file and where.

Rules

• Never supply a dimension, a radius, a grade limit, or an apparatus requirement.
• List every arrival before looking at the site, including refuse and maintenance.
• Note every reversing movement and whether it involves the public way.
• Treat every curb cut as a permission, and say so.
• Give fire access its own pass, every run.
• Never state that a vehicle can make a turn. Name who confirms it.
• Mark fire department and jurisdiction positions verbal or written.

Anti-patterns

• Studying cars and forgetting refuse, moving vans and maintenance.
• Assuming a curb cut will be granted because there is room for it.
• Checking fire access after the scheme is fixed.
• Assuming a landscaped area can carry apparatus.
• Performing swept path analysis.
• Treating a state route or a rail frontage as the city's to permit.
• Letting the accessible route cross a loading movement without naming it.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. Output is written directly at the path you choose.