Shared Space: An Interactive Experience Introduction As a society, we have seen the quality of our public spaces declining for the past century. Urban areas have become more focused on the transportation of vehicles through the public space, as use of cars has increased, than on the ability of people to enjoy the space. This has led to city streets that function poorly in their ability to move traffic and act as a social center for the area. A new idea has been developed to combat this social disorder: Shared Space. Shared Space is an approach to public space design that incorporates non-conventional methods of traffic management in order to improve the quality of life in urban areas. Included in this report is an explanation of what problems shared space solves and why it works. Also, studies of shared space environments in Europe will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this design on traffic management and safety. The Problem Since the founding of America, the main roads that ran through towns were recognized as the focus of the entire area. People often lived along these roads and used the road space for many things. Market places where people sold everything from fresh produce to hand-made clothes were set up on the road. Cars were not around, and the only vehicles on the roads were the occasional horse-drawn carriage. Urban roads were a place for social interaction and functioned as the economic heart of a city. When the automobile was initially introduced in America, not much about these main city roads changed. The automobiles would drive on the street, but had many people, small markets and animals to deal with. The social function of the road was far more important than letting an automobile through quickly. As our society embraced autos, the role of these urban roads changed drastically. People soon wanted to be able to get in their car and drive to a destination as quickly as possible. Traffic controls were placed on roads where there was originally none and the new focus of urban streets was the automobile. Vendors who wanted to sell their goods could not do so on the streets anymore and needed to buy property next to the roads. With no central location for people to gather and interact, the social fabric of cities around America was damaged.Urban roads are now a place where auto transportation needs take precedent. Drivers are focused on traffic signals and signage and rarely communicate either visually or verbally with pedestrians along the road. Traffic does not flow smoothly as drivers often find themselves waiting at a stoplight when no other vehicles are impeding their travel. This unnecessary queuing is a product of having an autonomous traffic management system. People follow directions from posted signs instead of reacting to their environment and making decisions themselves. When drivers are not at stoplights, they are often going as fast as the posted limit will allow, which further distances the drivers from pedestrians who are looking to cross the road safely. Imagine the difference between cars driving by you in a parking lot at 10 mph to a car speeding by you at 60 mph when you are alongside a freeway changing a tire. Communicating with the drivers on the freeway would be nearly impossible. Cities have struggled to replace the old fashioned main street as a social gathering point with new venues. In some places, buildings called ―community centers‖ are thought to enhance the community that builds them. These places often charge money for residents who want to partake in the activities offered there. Interestingly, block parties are a time for social gathering in communities. This is where the street is blocked off to thru traffic and people gather on the street to socialize just as they did everyday 150 years ago. This demonstrates that people can still embrace the potential social function of streets, and that traffic is likely to be inhibiting that nowadays. Neither the efficient transportation of people nor the important social function of urban streets is being performed in America or most towns around the world. Traffic accidents on city roads are common as drivers react to traffic controls and not to the surrounding environment. Urban streets have gone from being centers of commerce for entire cities to places that can only be crossed on foot quickly and carefully. The Solution Shared Space! City planners should strive to give these urban roads back to the community. This can be done by utilizing the shared space concept. To understand how shared space works, it is important to realize how the entire transportation system would better function.Hans Monderman, known as the ―founding father‖ of the shared space concept, explains that traveling on highways and in urban areas, ―the public realm‖, should be completely different experiences. Here is a comparison of the two (1): Highways The Public Realm Regulated Culturally Defined Impersonal Personal Predictable Unpredictable Single-Purpose Multipurpose Traffic Signs and Markings Eye Contact Highways are needed for shared space to work. Society needs these roads to effectively travel longer distances between cities. These roads are much different than the roads of urban areas. They should be heavily regulated by the government. This is because human interaction on these freeways is almost nonexistent. The purpose of traveling on a freeway is to get to a destination, not to enjoy the surrounding area or its culture on the way, and there are few people to interact with along the way. The public realm is the other part of the highway system. This is an area that is focused on bringing the surrounding community together as much as possible. This is done by essentially removing roads as we know them, and giving that space back to the people. This not only allows residents to move better around their city, but allows motorists to move through efficiently as well. Drivers can make their own choices in this area. There are no centerlines and no curbs, the pavement that is meant for motorists is usually a different color that the surrounding surface. Because of this, drivers have fewer distractions when navigating through the city. Without unnecessary signage and traffic controls, drivers are able to concentrate on their surroundings. They are forced to make
View Full Document
Unlocking...