Where Traditional Road Rules Are Tossed in Favor of Efficiency

This shared space street near the Museumsplein in Amsterdam features hopscotch, monkey cages, bike racks, even picnic tables. What you won't find is traffic lights and street signs. Photo: Flickr/Joel Mann

On New Road in Brighton, England, pedestrians can walk peacefully alongside cyclists and motor vehicles.

Though the area is quite often a busy one, New Road represents a successful example of what is called a shared space, a term coined by architect Ben Hamilton-Baillie in 2000, in which conventional road management devices such as traffic signals, curbs and dotted lines are completely removed from the picture.

What remains is a system that revolves around an individual’s understanding of how traffic should operate. In shared spaces like New Road, for instance, drivers must determine for themselves the speed at which they move while keeping an eye out for others.

The scheme, which was completed in 2007 by Landscape Projects, has succeeded in encouraging careful and defensive driving on the part of motorists while artistically redesigning what was formerly a rundown part of the city.

From an ecological perspective, shared spaces are an efficient form of urban design because they cut down the amount of travel time and lower fuel consumption.

Hamilton-Baillie invented the term “shared space” after conducting research in mainland Europe and the U.K. on the components of traditional traffic, which divide a pedestrian’s walking space from the flow of vehicles and cyclists.

“The key characteristic of shared space is the creation of environments that encourage low speed and steady movement patterns,” he says.

“This seems to reduce noise, emissions and fuel use, as well as foster environments more conducive to walking and cycling. Formal studies of these effects are sparse and still fragmentary, but there are some empirical studies, mainly German, Dutch or Swedish.”

While shared spaces can save communities money by reducing the need for traffic signals, road signs and street lighting, the scheme can also decrease the overall energy costs of elements that go into the manufacturing of products common to roads, such as steel barriers, road markings, railings and curbs.

“The key benefit from shared space, in addition to the immediate practical advantages, is the promotion of civility,” Hamilton-Baillie adds.

Additional advantages to shared space may come as a surprise to those skeptical of a traffic system independent of standard regulations. Shared spaces improve the movement of traffic by reducing congestion and travel time.

While the combination of pedestrians and moving vehicles may strike some as dangerous, shared spaces have been proven to actually reduce casualty rates.

Shared spaces are also more efficient in making use of urban land and increasing the public’s engagement with the community’s structure and design.

Hamilton-Baillie explains that the concept behind shared space stems partially from woonerfs, which are streets in the Netherlands that put the needs of pedestrians and cyclists before drivers. He currently works with associate Paola Spivach at his own consulting company, Hamilton-Baillie Associates Ltd., where he partners with communities, agencies and organizations across the U.K. to brainstorm ideas for high quality public spaces.

“I set up a practice in 2003 to allow me to continue to investigate and develop these ideas, and with Paola’s particular skills to apply these ideas to schemes in the U.K. and elsewhere,” Hamilton-Baillie explains. “Our street design work and continuing research and case study observations are intended to help advance and refine the basic principles.”