People & Traffic in Llan - Crowdfunding for change

Llangollen, North Wales, UK  07 March 2015

"Everyone grumbles about Castle Street. Drivers in a hurry to get through would like all parking banned, pedestrians would like safe crossings, shopkeepers need to load and unload and want more parking for their customers, tourists want a pleasant place to stroll.

At the moment we have the worst of all possible solutions, some legal parking, some illegal parking, double yellows down one side giving motorists the illusion of a clear road - until they meet a large vehicle coming the other way, and pedestrians running the gauntlet. The only good thing is that it's so chaotic the traffic is often slow and there haven't been any serious accidents. There have been a lot of near-misses, minor bumps and startled pedestrians. Relying on poor traffic management to keep people safe isn't really a sensible policy..."

more at http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/people-traffic-in-llan/

Breaking news: 

Crowdfunding target for Llangollen road survey reached !

http://www.newsnorthwales.co.uk/news/145131/crowdfunding-target-for-llangollen-road-survey-reached.aspx

Shared Space pedestrian and traffic interaction, Bern, Switzerland

"Free-flowing pedestrian and traffic flows along this busy suburban arterial route into Bern. illustrates the potential for improving pedestrian flows where a low-speed traffic environment has been created. Road carries over 20,000 vehicles per day. First three years of this and similar schemes have seen traffic flows improve, pedestrian delays reduced and significant improvements in accident rates. All former signal-controlled pedestrian crossings were removed."[Ben Hamilton-Baillie and Fritz Kobi] [Note the children's play structure with bouncing kids at the roundabout in the background. Also the emergency vehicle @ 4:23 min. shows how the pedestriam median refuge is mountable in emergencies. ]

Shared space concept to lift lower Brougham St

- Taranaki Daily News (NZ)
A $1 million redevelopment of New Plymouth's dingy lower Brougham St will put cars and pedestrians on the same level.

From March next year much of the street between Devon St and Ariki St will become a single level shared space for cars, pedestrians, cyclists and even skateboarders.

The redevelopment is to be funded from the council's $3.71m model walking and cycling community grant and will create a type of space increasingly used in street renewals around the world.

"We've taken notes from similar street redevelopments in central Auckland where there aren't separate spaces for traffic and pedestrians, but rather a shared space which has resulted in an open, fresh-feeling public area where once there was just a road," said Let's Go project manager Carl Whittleston.

"We are trying to makes this space pedestrian-friendly but we're not seeking to keep vehicles out."

To achieve this shared space concept, defined footpaths are gone and seating areas, planter boxes and a green space determine where cars and people can go.

A single lane of road will remain for buses turning right out of King St and parking spaces will still be provided for library users.

Mr Whittleston expected the design to be completed in January with plans put up for display in Puke Ariki. All going well, construction will start in March next year.

Exhibition Road Shared Space now open

A farewell to pavements
Is it a mad idea to turn roads and pavements into one great big shared space? London's grandest cultural artery will shortly find out

By Justin McGuirk
guardian.co.uk

"...Roads and pavements are rules, keeping hard cars and soft pedestrians apart. Lane markings, pedestrian crossings and steel railings are another layer of rules. Do we really need such nannying? What if we relaxed the rules a little?

This is exactly what's happening at London's Exhibition Road, the great Victorian thoroughfare that stretches half a mile from South Kensington tube station to Hyde Park in London. In the last 18 months, it has been ripped up and remade to a new design that all but abolishes the distinction between road and pavement..."

[More]

Will new town embrace shared space too?

...Two public meetings were held last week at Shadoxhurst Village Hall and Great Chart Primary School to give residents the chance to see how the Chilmington Green and Discovery Park area of Ashford will be developed...one of the proposals would be to roll out a similar shared space scheme as recently unveiled in Elwick Road. The scheme blurs the boundaries of roads and paths giving more power to pedestrians and slowing down traffic flows.

National experts on 'place-making' were brought in to help and advise on the best ways forward... [more]

Intersection Repair

by Clarence Eckerson, Jr. on May 31, 2007
Ever dreamed of making the streets outside your abode more livable, pedestrian-friendly, and community-oriented?
City Repair in Portland, Oregon hosts an annual Village Building Convergence where hundreds of people come together to build diverse projects for the benefit of their communites and to take back their streets via a process known as the Intersection Repair.This involves painting streets with a high-visiblity mural that creates a public square for residents to gather and one which gently encourages drivers to slow down when approaching these spaces. Over time the neighbors further enhance the transformation by adding amenities like benches, community bulletin boards, and introducing gardens & art. As you'll see, the possibilites are endless.StreetFilms visited three of the Intersection Repairs and spoke with Mark Lakeman co-founder of City Repair, Greg Raisman, the Portland DOT Liason, and scores of residents & volunteers about why they were doing it.
[watch the video]