[SystemSafety] Shared-space intersections

[SPRIGGS, John J]

I understand that these spaces work by (for example) a pedestrian making eye-contact with a car driver and agreeing who has right-of-way using small movements and gestures.  This is not easy when you are blind.  How should the visually-impaired be integrated into the shared space?

Even if you were to have a 'seeing eye dog', their movements and gestures would be made in a different social context  :o)

John

As usual, these opinions are my own, and not necessarily those of my employers, Customers or clients.

-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety-bounces at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Peter Bernard Ladkin
Sent: 10 May 2013 09:23
To: systemsafety at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: [SystemSafety] Shared-space intersections

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




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