Rob Imrie, King’s College London

Divide presentation into three parts: (1). The origins of an idea: reaction to the modernist city. (2). What are Shared Spaces? (3). An evaluation of Shared Spaces.

(1). The origins of an idea: reaction to the modernist city.

Rationality of planning… Increase economic efficiency of city Create order from chaos Use of engineering and technique Strict zoning Cities - conduits for cars not people

Auto-mobility…the rise of auto cultures…

Priority to flows, movement, and mobility Rise of auto-infrastructures e.g. 40% of land in USA cities, roads and parking lots Segregated spaces, managed spaces…

1966, ‘Research on Urban Areas’ (Ministry of Transport) ‘Traffic segregation should be the key note of modern road design’. ….familiar landscape of underpasses and over bridges, barriers and signals…

Nothing new about sharing spaces: Clarence Stein (1927) and the design of Radburn, NJ “a radical revision of relations of houses, paths, gardens, parks, blocks, and local neighbourhoods”.

Jane Jacobs Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. It is the sacking of cities (1993: 6).

(2). What are Shared Spaces?

Hans Monderman Traffic engineer, pioneered 120 Shared Spaces in Friesland… …getting cars to slow down… ‘to look each other in the eye, to judge body language and learn to take responsibility – to function as normal human beings’.

Shared Spaces: A traffic engineering concept involving the removal of the traditional separation between motor vehicles and pedestrians and other road users, and the removal of traditional road priority management devices such as kerbs, lines, signs and signals.

Shared Spaces… Safety agenda, vulnerability of children in poor areas. Health agenda, create safer spaces for cyclists and pedestrians. Absence of open space/play space in poorer inner urban areas.

Shared Spaces… Dismantling prescriptive rules and regulations. Eradicating formal order. Shape public space through behavioural and intuitive use.

In the UK… Design Bulletin 32, Home Zones £30 million, Home Zone Pilot Project schemes complete or underway Few completed schemes on the ground (DoT) Ad hoc traffic calming schemes at best

(3). An evaluation of Shared Spaces

Who is it for? Renders the environment ‘illegible’ Disliked by certain categories of user, e.g. vision impaired.

Failure to deal with problems of motor vehicles/transport… Seeks to create new ways to accommodate ‘auto- mobility’…

Lack of clarity about its main objective (s). A different form or order, rule-based and prescriptive. Re-assertion of an environmental determinism.