Shared space
Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.
Shared space design can take many different forms depending on the level of demarcation and segregation between different transportation modes. Variations of shared space are often used in urban settings, especially those that have been made nearly car-free, and as part of living streets within residential areas. As a separate concept, "shared space" normally applies to semi-open spaces on busier roads, and here it is controversial.
Shared space is often opposed by organisations representing the interests of blind, partially sighted, and deaf people, who usually express a preference for the clear separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
History
The origin of the term is generally linked with the work of Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman, who pioneered the method in the Dutch province of Friesland. Prior to the adoption of the term, street design projects carried out in Chambéry, France, by Michel Deronzier from the 1980s used the term "pedestrian priority". The term was used by Tim Pharoah to describe informal street layouts with no traffic demarcation.The term has been widely applied, especially by Ben Hamilton-Baillie, since the preparation of a European co-operation project in 2003. The European Shared Space project developed new policies and methods for the design of public spaces with streets between 2004 and 2008 under the leadership of Hans Monderman until his death in 2008.
In 2014, a review of the evolution of the shared space concepts was offered in Transport Reviews: A Transnational Transdisciplinary Journal.
The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation has identified three broad types of street design approach that have been called shared space but which have a number of important differences. They suggest that the term "shared space" should be replaced by three new labels: pedestrian prioritised streets, informal streets and enhanced streets.
Philosophy and support
The goal of shared space is to improve the road safety and vibrancy of roads and junctions, particularly ones with high levels of pedestrian traffic, by encouraging negotiation of priority in shared areas between different road users. Shared space is a "design approach rather than a design type characterised by standard features".Hans Monderman suggested that an individual's behaviour in traffic is more positively affected by the built environment of the public space than by conventional traffic control devices and regulations. A reason for the apparent paradox that reduced regulation leads to safer roads may be found by studying the risk compensation effect.
- "We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behaviour...The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."
- "When you don't exactly know who has right of way, you tend to seek eye contact with other road users. You automatically reduce your speed, you have contact with other people and you take greater care."
The UK's Department for Transport issued national guidance on shared space in 2011. However in July 2018 it reversed its position and instructed local authorities to halt all new shared space projects, with Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani stating they "just don't work" for blind and partially-sighted people.
Criticism
Reviewing the research that underpinned national policy in the UK, in 2011, Moody and Melia found that some of the claims made for shared space schemes were not justified by the evidence—particularly the claims that pedestrians are able to follow desire lines, and that shared space reduces traffic speeds. Their primary research in Ashford, Kent, suggested that in streets with high volumes of traffic, pedestrians are more likely to give way to vehicles than vice versa. Most people, but particularly women and older people, found the shared space intimidating and preferred the previous layout with conventional crossings. A study by Hammond and Musselwhite using a case study of Widemarsh Street in Hereford found that if traffic volume was relatively low and speeds of vehicles slow anyway, then vulnerable road users found it easier to share the area with vehicles, including those blind or partially sighted and older people with mobility impairments.There are wide-ranging reservations about the practicality of the shared space philosophy where it involves the removal of features such as kerbs. In a 2006 report from the Associated Press, it was commented that traditionalists in town planning departments say the schemes rob the motorists of vital information, and reported that a spokesman for Royal National Institute of Blind People criticised the removal of familiar features such as railings, kerbs, and barriers. Shared space is opposed by many organisations representing blind, partially sighted and deaf people. Some of their members avoid shared space areas entirely. Shared surfaces, which are generally used in shared space schemes, can cause concern for the blind and partially sighted who cannot visually negotiate their way with other road users, as the lack of separation implicit in these features has also removed their safe space. The UK's Guide Dogs for the Blind Associations "Say No to Shared Streets" campaign has the support of more than thirty other disability organisations. There have been similar concerns raised by other groups representing disabled people, including Leonard Cheshire Disability, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, and Mencap, who have noted problems when negotiating a route with motor vehicle users, leading them to challenge its fundamental premise. Lord Holmes' 2015 report Accidents by Design found that sixty-three per cent of respondents reported a negative experience of shared space, and thirty-five per cent said they actively avoided it. Lord Holmes attacked the concept as a recipe for "confusion, chaos and catastrophe". The Holmes report also noted serious issues for wheelchair users "Respondents who used wheelchairs stated that it was virtually impossible to locate a safe crossing point on roads with shared space." In July 2018, the UK DfT reversed its position on shared spaces due to the risk to disabled people, with Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani stating "they just don't work".
The Dutch Fietsberaad has demonstrated ambivalence over shared space schemes, describing some benefits but also some drawbacks for the less assertive cyclist. Fietsberaad has noted that shared space has decreased car speeds but that "some cyclists do not dare take priority. Instead, they dismount and wait for priority to be clearly given, then walk or ride across the intersection. A problem may be that they are met halfway by cars from the other direction and must rely on the drivers to give way of their own volition. Owing to low speeds and the cyclists' defensive behaviour this crossing strategy need not be unsafe in itself, but it most certainly is not convenient."
In New Zealand, concerns about such limitations of the shared space concept have led, in cooperation with disability organisations, to the introduction of vehicle- and obstruction-free corridors along the building lines, to provide a safe route in the shared spaces being introduced.
Nearly car free
The British Transport Research Laboratory found that below flows of 90 vehicles per hour adult pedestrians were prepared to mingle with traffic. When flows reached 110 vehicles per hour, they used the width between frontages as if it were a traditional road. A similar value is used to define suitability for a woonerf.Examples
Numerous towns and cities around the world have implemented schemes with elements based on the shared space principles.Australia
, plans to implement shared space in its city centre. The Streets as Shared Spaces program supported 65 councils across New South Wales in developing shared spaces, since its launch in May 2020.Austria
In October 2011, Graz opened a shared space zone around a five-point intersection known as Sonnenfelsplatz next to the University of Graz with the intention of easing congestion from 4 separate city bus lines and auto, bike and pedestrian traffic as well as reducing the number of accidents. This was the first shared space concept for Austria.Denmark
introduced a shared space project in Denmark. It was part of the European Interreg IIIB project with Province of Fyslän as lead partner. The project was led by urban planner Morten Mejsen Westergaard and Bjarne Winterberg. It was supervised by Hans Monderman.Germany
introduced a shared space road system in September 2007. One of project's goals was to improve road safety in the town.Netherlands
has no road markings and no signs giving an order or direction signs visible in the streets. There is a traffic sign at the entrance to the town that reads Verkeersbordvrij, meaning "free of traffic signs". Parking meters and stopping restrictions are also absent. Drachten is another pioneer town for such schemes. Accident figures at one junction where traffic lights were removed have dropped from thirty-six in the four years prior to the introduction of the scheme to two in the two years following it. Only three of the original fifteen sets of traffic lights remain. Tailbacks are now almost unheard of at the town's main junction, which handles about 22,000 cars a day.An evaluation of the Laweiplein scheme in Drachten, which replaced a set of traffic lights with an open square with a roundabout and pedestrian crossings, concluded that traffic now flows at a constant rate, at equal speeds for motor and bicycle traffic, and more freely with reduced congestion, shorter delays and improved capacity including for pedestrians. The evaluation states that there has been a reduction in recorded accidents, but cyclist and motorist perceptions of traffic safety have slightly declined. This is in accordance with theories of how shared spaces work by creating uncertainty. Meanwhile, pedestrian perceptions of traffic safety seem to have remained the same.