Count the sets of traffic lights before you get to the other side of town. Three? Five? A dozen? Whatever, there are arguably too many. And equally possible, they don't do anything for either road safety or efficient management of traffic. They certainly don't do a thing for making the residents of the town feel comfortable in the place they call their home.
Chances are, whether as pedestrians, cyclists or motorists, they travel through and within their town centre as a chore. And likely as antagonists against each of their other kind of fellow traveller. Our urban streets and open places all too often actually deserve the 'urban jungle' epithet.
At any typical town centre junction, engineers have tried to 'manage' every activity there. Lights to dictate when and where cars, cyclists, and pedestrians cross. Barriers and islands to organise the 'flow' of those on foot. Ugly painted lines of myriad shapes and colours which must be interpreted by drivers already distracted by green, amber and red signals and all the other signs. Cyle lanes which often channel their users into traffic traps.
Engineers are great at doing stuff like working out the stress capabilities of a bridge, but don't have much clue about dealing with how actual people manage in real environments. All those lights, signs, warnings and prohibitions don't take into account that the human species is extraordinarily skilful at 'reading' where it is, and working out what is necessary to operate within the space and conditions.
Every user of the 'shared space' junction, or square, is aware of what each other is doing. They look at each other instead of watching lights, signs, or markings. It's all very human. It makes people aware of their own place in relation to others. And it is something that we naturally do very well. The lack of all the surplus street furniture also makes the relevant streets and spaces more attractive to use.
Sounds nice but loopy? Not really, there are working examples of this concept in Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Britain.
At a recent Forum organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association, self-confessed 'recovering architect' Ben Hamilton-Baillie argued that overloading the motorist with traffic lights and road signs can increase road crashes in urban areas. Handing more responsibility to the driver can result in a 'spectacularly positive' change in behaviour, he says.
Backing his claims up with examples from across Europe, he showed how road-related injuries actually fall when drivers are given more freedom to drive at speeds that are appropriate to the environment. He cited Makkinga in Holland, where a total removal of all traffic lights, road signs and markings led to an improvement in both traffic flow and road safety.
"Presume the driver is an idiot, and he will act like an idiot," Hamilton-Baillie says. "Remove a lot of the senseless signs and he will know how to act. Take away speed signs and you'll find that fewer drivers are exceeding the speed which establishes itself as the norm."
Emphasising that the concept applies to urban conditions and not highways, he noted how removing centre lines markings from roads result in a reduction in speed and accidents. Pilot schemes which involved turning off traffic lights have been made permanent, as congestion was reduced significantly. He showed the change in the behaviour of taxi drivers where shared space is practiced, such as the 'accident-free' Seven Dials in London, in contrast to nearby Shaftesbury Avenue.
