Auckland City Council is finally introducing shared spaces into street scape and design. This concept relates to the idea that rather then separate our streets into designated zones for walking driving cycling sitting and any other event , it is actually much more practical to take a holistic approach to design in which a border-less and barrier-less street promotes people to function rationally, this is actually the more inclusive and safe way to design streets. I can explain this with quite a clear example in that if you put clearly marked ‘easy to speed through’ lanes on a street along with, footpaths designed for slow walking/ shopping you are creating a dangerous environment in that you have put two opposite activities next to each other and there is likelihood of accidents and conflict between pedestrians and drivers. On the other hand if you remove all causeways and allow obvious and free interaction between cars and people on a street, it becomes more beneficial for both cars and people to be more considerate of each other, when it is clear that you are sharing the space you will slow down for pedestrians etc. Also this makes the street adaptive with respect to time of day and function of street, for example when the street is busier with pedestrians perhaps on a Saturday lunchtime, cars will go less and slower through the street, while at other time when cars are busier, maybe perhaps a Monday morning cars will go faster and in more numbers and people slower and less through the street. In my opinion I cannot see any real weakness in shared space streets and I see it as a real positive step for Auckland city. I can also see how this might save a lot of time and money in irrelevant street barriers and street furniture.
Posted May 11, 2010 at 12:34pm
