![]() Corridors that allow cyclists to travel safely from A to B are essential. ![]() Protected bike lanes are a great solution, especially on roads where there is a great difference between the speed and mass of cars and cyclists. So what does this mean for North America’s rapidly evolving bicycling culture? All the attention on protected bike lanes is certainly not wrong. The Dutch Approach Delft, The Netherlands. At the same time, places can get back to their roots, by emphasizing the rivers and other natural features that encouraged people to settle on a particular spot in the first place. Old creeks and canals can be made visible again by removing the underground piping and bringing back narrow bridges.Īspects like this make artificial traffic measures, like speed bumps or pinch points, unnecessary. Landscaping items like statues or fountains not only create a sense of place, they also attract pedestrian activity and guide traffic around them. Streets that feature trees and flowers, instead of traditional traffic control devices, makes users feel like they are in a neighborhood instead of a race car track. Drivers feel the texture of paving stones as they drive over, and the vibrations make them feel like they are going faster than they would feel driving on smooth asphalt. A contrasting colored border can be used to narrow the street for drivers, which encourages slower driving. For example, colored paving can guide the eye. Materials and design forms are fundamental in a shared space. Pedestrians take back the streets while cyclists and car drivers adjust their behavior. Yellow paving stones keeps drivers in the centre of the road. This design in the medieval Dutch city of Naarden makes the most of a narrow street in an historical setting. Dutch research shows most locations retrofitted to shared space have lower travel speeds and fewer serious injuries. By making people directly responsible for the safety of their fellow citizens, shared space actually improves safety. Shared space can be a great solution on streets that attract people – or would attract people, if they were better designed, such as downtown or neighborhood shopping streets. Shared spaces complement private and public gathering spots: coffee shops, restaurants, parks, churches. At the same time, delivery, emergency and other vehicles can pass through without dominating the area and businesses flourish. A pace that is good for chatting with your neighbor and walking your dog, for flirting and daydreaming. The result is that traffic moves through urban space at an appropriately human pace that promotes accessibility for all users. The street’s design guides people in their behaviour and expectations and encourages them to think for themselves again. Decisions are based on what is happening. As a result, traffic slows down and people look more carefully. Moving across these streets is not a matter of blind obedience to lights and signs. Here’s the basic principle so many Americans fail to understand: uncertainty can be a good thing. Without clear sidewalks and streets, people are less certain. In the United States, Pittsburgh redesigned its historic Market Square in 2010 around European shared-space principles, and it’s working beautifully: This former through route circling the inner city of the Frisian town of Sneek, The Netherlands, has been transformed to a series of attractive mixed use quays: Dutch examples abound but this approach is also working in places with emerging cycling cultures like Exhibition Road in London, UK, or Opernplatz in Duisburg, Germany.Īt Duisburg’s Opernplatz, cars travel the square at a slow pace, while pedestrians walk the full space, from Opera building to city park: Photo: Dick van Veen It shows what can happen when the usual traffic devices are removed, as I described above. In the Netherlands, we call this approach to low-stress public space “shared space.”īefore you dismiss the concept as a utopian ideal, take a look at the video below from Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. ![]() Except there are no curbs, no sidewalks, no traffic lights, no striping, not even a stop sign.Īll the same, cyclists, parents with baby carriages, buses and cars - yes, cars - are going about their business guided by the same human courtesy that allows us to form lines and wait our turn at the grocery store checkout. Imagine yourself in a small town enjoying a coffee next to what looks like a public square. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. This post originally appeared on the blog of The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. Photo: M.Andersen.ĭick van Veen is a Dutch architect and engineer at consultancy company Mobycon. Market Square in Pittsburgh, PA: an American model for shared street space. ![]()
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