More on shared space

I apologize to my friends here for not having the post up right away this morning. With our office move, we've been having some technical issues with our Internet connection. I think we finally have it resolved, but it's cut into my writing time (not to mention working time).

I was planning to share these videos as part of a larger piece, but I'm just going to go ahead and share them now. 

The first series is an introduction to shared space. It focuses a lot on the social/civic value of shared space. I won't argue with those insights, but I would start the argument for shared space with safety and the productivity of our places (finance) with the social/civic benefits being happy side effects of building a place of value.

This next series, Roads unfit for people, gives a really good critique of traffic lights and has some fascinating examples -- both planned and unplanned -- of the use of shared space.

This video contains footage from the prior series but take on more of an advocate's tone, albeit in a British tone. I like it.

And here is a direct comparison of one intersection in New Zealand with and without traffic controls. When the lights went out accidentally, they went out and filmed the "mayhem" (on the left) and then went back the next day and filmed the same intersection at the exact same time of day. Like we pointed out yesterday on SID.tv, the lights are what cause the congestion.

And then essentially the same thing -- an experiment with and without signals -- this one in England.

Finally, here is one former arterial that was redesigned to be shared space. I love the fact that it runs for over five minutes because you can see that this is not a fluke; this is how the intersection actually works. The cars drive slow, traffic flows nicely, people cross safely and it all works. 

Comments

[Steve]

While rare nationwide, shared spaces occur naturally in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. In these places, the space becomes shared because the extremely narrow street width coupled with limited driving space and light use create an environment where pedestrians take over the street and the whole of the street*. But this takes place only along very, very, very old streets near the urban core. Philadelphia's Elfreth's Alley is the most famous individual example of such a space; Boston's North End a neighborhood composed primarily of such spaces.

By the way, shared space comes out of a Dutch concept, the woonerf.
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* Can anyone place this (modified) reference?

[Matt]

How might this be incorporated into existing large intersections, such as ones with 4 to 6 lanes on all four sides? These types of intersections are common throughout postwar American cities and especially suburbs.