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Streets For Living
A Way to Calm Traffic in RP?
"Shared streets" in Europe are touted as the highest and best use of streets and the concept is beginning to catch on in the US. The idea is to safely share the streets with people, bikes and cars equally, so that cars no longer have exclusive use of the streets.
Shared streets are designed to be streets full of life, used by pedestrians, playing children, bicyclists, and low-speed motor vehicles; becoming a public place for people instead of a single-purpose conduit for automobiles. Vehicles may not impede pedestrians, who in turn may not unreasonably hinder the progress of drivers. Vehicles are slowed by placing trees, planters, benches, parking areas, and other obstacles in the street. Motorists are treated as the intruders and must travel at walking speed.
Paul Chasan writes: Rather than coerce people into driving safely, shared streets incent them to do so by using design cues. They achieve this by using the principle of ambiguity. For example, by planting trees in the right-of-way, eliminating the grade separation between sidewalk and street and using angled parking to carve out pocket community spaces like gardens, seating or children’s play areas. Shared streets send an implicit message to drivers: Slow Down.
Here is a diagram showing a normal street vs. a shared street layout (from Paul Chasan):
Safer too?
Paul Chasan continues: Shared streets blur the boundary between the street and sidewalks -- the neighborhood shares the road with slow-moving cars. This two-way interaction of people and cars becomes a virtuous circle as the busier the streets are, the safer they become; it seems that when you drive people off the street, that they become less safe. European studies show that shared streets are significantly safer than traditional street configurations and surprisingly do not compromise travel time in residential settings. This is because, by eliminating stop signs, drivers are able to maintain a steady if slow constant speed that is similar to the average speed traveled in start/stop traffic over equivalent distances.
Streets of the Future?
Hamilton-Baillie (who studies how modes of travel produce changes in urban culture) states that shared streets are the streets of the future. They have plenty of room for pedestrians, cyclists and cars -- with no need for speed bumps or school-zone "slow" signs. He says that current neighborhood streets have "acres of asphalt, crying out for statues of your heroes -- whoever they are -- and trees" to be planted in their midst. "Bulk-buy the statues, and put them around," Hamilton-Baillie joked. More seriously, he advised city planners to use more trees, not more speed bumps or humps, to improve the street environment. "People think traffic calming is bumps. That's it: bumps. They're applied as a punishment to the car. But don't wage war on the car. It's going to be part of our cities for quite a while."
Architecture Week writes: One of the most intriguing design innovations of the last 20 years has been the "shared street" or integration concept for residential streets. The core idea is that the street is properly a physical and social part of the living environment, to be used simultaneously for vehicular movement, social contacts, and civic activities. ...
Pedestrians, children at play, bicyclists, parked cars, and moving cars all share the same street space. Even though it seems these uses conflict with one another, the physical design is such that drivers are placed in an inferior position. Such conditions are actually much safer for the pedestrian than in common residential street layouts. By redesigning the physical aspects of the street, the social and physical public domain of the pedestrian is reclaimed. Since this "emancipation" of the pedestrian environment is done with full integration of vehicular traffic, it is not an anti-car policy.
One Concept - Many Names
Shared streets are also called "shared spaces" and are sometimes called woonerfs (a Dutch word that means "street for living", or simply "Living Street") for residential areas, and winkelerfs for shared commercial streets. There are some subtle differences between Shared Space and woonerfs. Shared space appears to represent the latest thinking that evolved from woonerfs.
Behavior Modification
Shared space is a traffic engineering philosophy that relies on the principle that road users' behavior is more likely to be affected by the street environment and design than by the traditional deployment of measures such as speed bumps, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.
In a shared space, car drivers become residents. "Eye contact and human interaction are more effective means to achieve and maintain attractive and safe areas than signs and rules". [5] Without any clear right of way, "motorists are forced to slow down to safer speeds, make eye contact with pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers, and decide among themselves when it is safe to proceed." [6]
In Riverdale Park?
I have some reservations about this approach. But it might be really good. I would like to see it tried on a quiet side street first, yet it might work well even on busy streets like Queensbury, Riverdale Road and Taylor.
What do you think?
- Would shared streets be good for RP?
- What streets in RP do you think might work well as a shared street?
Here is a picture from Hamilton-Braillie of people enjoying a commercial shared street.
Jim Coleman recently posted a pdf about shared streets to TownTalk with pictures and diagrams. Much of this article was taken from it. See the "Paul Chasan" reference below for a link to the pdf.
References:
Hamilton-Baillie: http://www.cvrti.utah.edu/~macleod/bike/mbac/woonerfs.html
Architecture Week article: http://www.architectureweek.com/2004/0505/building_1-1.html
Paul Chasan: http://depts.washington.edu/open2100/pdf/2_OpenSpaceTypes/Open_Space_Types/woonerfs.pdf
General description of Woonerfs from: http://www.knowledgejump.com/woonerf/woonerf.html
[5] Woonerf revisited – The Emmen pilot in Shared Space
[6] http://www.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2004/05/21/street_smarts
Other interesting resources:
http://www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk/index.htm Lots of excellent info here!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_street
http://www.shared-space.org/
http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000765.html "Woonerf" - Anarchy the Key to Safe Streets?
http://www.djc.com/news/en/11156157.html Shared streets can provide open space, too.
[Original article by Rob Oppenheim, but anyone is welcome to make changes or post comments.]
Rob_Oppenheim |
Latest page update: made by Rob_Oppenheim
, Sep 25 2007, 2:13 PM EDT
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Keyword tags:
shared street
speed humps
traffic calming
woonerf
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| betch9 | Shared Street? Great Idea! | 0 | Sep 17 2007, 11:07 AM EDT by betch9 | ||
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Thread started: Sep 17 2007, 11:07 AM EDT
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This is a great idea and implementing them on both sides of the RR tracks at Town Center, as Dwight stated, would be a great idea. I feel like I take my life into my hands trying to cross Lafyette to get to the MARC train some mornings. Plus when the train went through one morning last week, traffic was backed up to Sheridan. I would think travelers would think twice about the short cut if it took just as long. Also, I don't think the firetrucks use that route to service that part of Ward 1 & Ward 2. Also, it'll be a great amenity for the Dumm's Corner developement.
Rob is also correct that this could be implemented on a fairly low budget with some painting and some large potted plants. |
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| Rob_Oppenheim | Where to start? | 0 | Sep 13 2007, 3:19 AM EDT by Rob_Oppenheim | ||
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Thread started: Sep 13 2007, 3:19 AM EDT
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This might be great for town center busy streets, but I have some reservations. I would like to see it tried on a calm residential street first. Ideally a fairly short block that did not "go anywhere". Like the 4700 block of Oliver.
It could be done fairly cheaply. Paint some end-in parking, add a picnic table, a trash can, maybe a few big potted plants. (Then host a big town-wide block party there!) |
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| dwightrholmes | Nominate RP streets for woonerfization (Part II) | 0 | Sep 10 2007, 8:40 AM EDT by dwightrholmes | ||
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Thread started: Sep 10 2007, 8:40 AM EDT
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cont'd from previous comment...
So, bear with me here: These blocks might be perfect. I'd think it would be a tremendous asset to the Dumm's Corner side. Potentially some really interesting things that could be done there, I'd think, connecting from next to the tracks right up to the sidewalk tables… On the clocktower side of Queensbury, the train station could be integrated into a revamped Rhode Island/parking lot situation which could be really cool. You could say, after all, that this portion of Rhode Island already functions as a woonerf – just a mighty poorly-designed one!!! It's a street largely without curbs or clear delineation between where the cars are to drive vs where they should park vs where the people are to be. The problem is that it's straight and there is no hindrance to driving fast (and thus no comfort to pedestrians, other than the fact that not that much traffic moves through there now. But this will change “after Cafritz.”. Converting this into a true "woonerf" or "shared street" could be a really positive contribution to Town Center and mitigate a lot of the negative impact on traffic patterns sure to follow the development of the Cafritz property. The Natoli Place/Lafayette area from Queensbury up to the E-W Hwy bridge could also be worked into this, helping to mitigate some of the traffic issues created by cut-through traffic on Lafayette. If you did this you'd really have one large Town Center area integrated into the "wonnerf", but still split by the RxR tracks and Queensbury Rd. |
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