If I showed you two big intersections — one
with a bunch of signs, traffic lights, and boundaries, and one with no markings or apparent
rules at all — which one would look safer to you? Towns all over Europe are starting to experiment
with streets like this: where cars, bikes, buses, and people can travel freely in the
same space. I think this looks like an accident waiting
to happen. But I know someone who would know a lot more
about this than I do. I’m Roman Mars from 99 Percent Invisible. And that’s what urban planners often refer
to as a “shared space” design strategy. It seems counterintuitive, but there’s evidence
that getting rid of all signs and barriers might make our streets a lot safer. So — how does it work? There’s a spot in Google street view where
you can witness a town undergoing this exact transformation. This is Poynton, England — about 20 minutes
away from Manchester. Here’s the city center in May 2011: there’s
a mess of signs and lights, a few small sidewalks, and some haphazard guardrails to keep pedestrians
safe. And here it is in July 2015. Traffic lights, road signs, curbs — all
gone. “Something very strange is happening on
the streets of Britain — I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in some places, pavements
and roads have been blurring into one with cars, buses, and pedestrians all sharing the
same space.” The town spent 4 million pounds to expand
sidewalk space and strip the city center of traditional demarcations. Now, the only marker left is this little sign:
Poynton shared space village. The concept is that the absence of separation
will make everyone more cautious — so commuters slow down, make eye contact, and negotiate. Watch what happens when a boy in Poynton is
encouraged to cross the street without waiting for the cars to clear the intersection. Because cars don’t spend time waiting at
traffic lights, it takes less time on average for them to get through the crossing. Even when bikers and pedestrians are absent,
cars drive slow due to a concept called “edge friction.” It’s the idea that nearby vertical elements
in a driver’s peripheral vision — like trees or lamps, create a visual cue for how
fast they’re going. On a highway, those are often totally absent,
so the sidelines blur. In a shared space, those lines play an important
mental trick to slow down drivers. In theory, shared space works well for pedestrians,
allowing them to follow their desired path while walking. Instead of being limited to a strict path,
they can walk exactly in the direction they want to go. n
In practice, that doesn’t always seem to be the case. Video footage of a shared space at Elwick
Square in Ashford, England shows that pedestrians’ mostly still stick to crosswalks, or where a crosswalk would be. That’s largely because these layouts are
stressful: The majority of a survey group asked about crossing Elwick Square reported
feeling anxious about it. And those pedestrians frequently report that
they prefer things the way they used to be. But the “way things used to be” is relative. If you look at old footage of city streets
in the early 1900s, cars mixed freely with pedestrians, bicyclists, and streetcars. Vehicles couldn’t go very fast back then,
so there wasn’t a huge concern about separating them from walkers and bikers. With plenty of city streets, that’s still
the case without any intentional urban planning. But the big question is whether these deliberately
stripped-down designs actually make people safer. It seems that in many cases, they do. For one thing, we know that the number of
accidents drops after shared spaces are installed. In Ipswich, rates of accidents involving injuries
fell from 23 over three years to just one per year. In London’s Kensington High Street, the
number of pedestrians injured dropped by nearly 60 percent. And in Drachten in the Netherlands, accidents
at one intersection fell from 36 in four years to two in two years. We also know that shared spaces are quantifiably
more free-flowing based on analysis of traffic conflicts. With video footage like this from Exhibition
Road in London, analysts can rate the severity of a traffic conflict based on participants’
speed and change of course. Before the shared space renovation, one pedestrian
had to step back onto the sidewalk to avoid a departing car. Another broke out into a sprint to avoid getting
hit by an oncoming van. After the shared space installation, traffic
conflicts were less frequent and less severe on average — like this, where pedestrians wait
for a cab to cross before continuing. Or this one, where a cyclist changes course
to avoid pedestrians. But that doesn’t mean these designs work
for everyone. “I think it’s the most ludicrous idea
I’ve ever heard. What about blind people? Children?” From the beginning, shared space designs have
been under fire for providing insufficient protections for disabled pedestrians, especially
the visually impaired. “The family of a pensioner who died a month
after being hit by a bus have called for traffic lights to be reinstalled at the junction.” “Traffic lights here were recently removed to make
way for a so-called shared space, but it’s a move that has angered David’s family” “I’m sure if the traffic lights were there, this wouldn’t have happened” A 2015 House of Lords report called for a
temporary ban on shared space designs. And in August 2016 a select committee of the
House of Commons launched an inquiry into the accessibility of such environments. Their final report in April 2017 asked the
government to put all shared space schemes on hold until they improved the process of
consulting disabled communities. Preliminary designs like these by the Danish
Building Research Institute give us an idea of what that balance might look like. They include both the mixed traffic of shared
space and the raised street textures and button-activated crosswalks that disabled users are used to. Shared spaces can be effective, but for this
kind of plan to work across communities, it will require a lot more research to determine
what will work in different places and what will serve the needs of all the people sharing the streets.
This concept assumes much higher intelligence in most of the population and trades order for anxiety.
Narrator in this video has obviously never been to South East Asia.
Sure, the roads may be safer because everyone is cautious but they are also heavily congested and slow.
In Saigon, you can just about walk faster than vehicle traffic; it also restricts emergency services and logistics - grinds the entire city to a halt.
Pass.
Cool concept, but I wonder the extent to which the novelty of 'shared spaces' contributes to their increase in safety.
The video said it itself: people feel anxious using shared spaces. Maybe that's why they're so cautious. People aren't used to the environment, so they are anxious when they are in the environment, and as a result, their senses of awareness are heightened. What happens when shared spaces are ubiquitous, and people are no longer anxious in them? My guess is that accidents will start to go up again.
It's astonishing how much status quo bias there is in this thread. I have experienced the advantage of "shared space" effects first hand where I live as a result of several blackouts over the past few years. In particular, there is one 6-way intersection that is absolutely atrocious to pass through that springs to mind. On any given day, with traffic lights operational, this intersection is terrible to pass through. It takes forever. On 4 separate occasions now, I have experienced passing through that intersection when the traffic light wasn't working during busy hours. If you had told me that the traffic light was out at that intersection, I would've avoided it like the plague, assuming it would be an absolute nightmare, but, to my surprise, those 4 incidents have to be the fastest I have ever seen traffic progress through that intersection. If it works at that insane intersection, it'll work in a lot of other places.
Oddly, at no point does the narrator reflect on some of the fundamental prerequisites for the success of shared spaces -- namely, pedestrian laws, a sense of civic duty, and a culture of mutual respect on the road. There's a reason he focuses on the UK and Netherlands. In the vast majority of towns and cities around the developing world (in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, etc.) shared spaces would be an absolute disaster for drivers and pedestrians alike.
I’m from Poynton and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone here say anything positive about the shared space.
Fun vid, but I wish it was presented a little less dishonestly (not saying he's lying, but I'd prefer a little less misdirection before I've had my coffee).
Streets signs are for 2 purposes, removing a municipality from liability, and keeping you safe.
As someone who is fascinated by road sign and highways, this title concerns me.