[SystemSafety] Shared-space intersections

[Peter Bernard Ladkin]

Traffic safety again.

I think good ideas are worth propagating. One is the shared-space approach to dense 
multi-participant traffic negotiations.

You take all the street signs down and traffic lights away, and eliminate priorities for traffic 
types. It started in the Netherlands, and there is a shared-space in the center of Bohmte, a town 
not far away from Bielefeld.

In short: it seems to work in some social settings. I would guess: a relatively dense space with 
complex traffic flows, fair numbers of each participant type (pedestrians, bicycles and other HPVs, 
and mixed motorised traffic from mopeds to heavy goods vehicles), and speeds that are in any case 
physically limited. And strong implicit or explicit social controls of aggression.

There was some talk of doing it with Exhibition Road in London Kensington, where the Science, 
Geology and Natural History Museums are, not far away from the Albert Hall. I don't know what became 
of that.

Apparently there is one at the Poynton Intersection in Greater Manchester. Here is The Guardian's 
short take in its In Praise Of series of editorials:  http://gu.com/p/3fm7a

PBL


Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld, 33594 Bielefeld, Germany
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de