Shared Space 2

Area within the proposed 20mph zone

It is important to recognise that the existing area within the proposed zone is already substantially sub-standard in highway terms. Many of the roads have no associated footways and those that do have footways are frequently of limited and very substandard width where pedestrians cannot pass without walking into the road. Frequently obstructions to these footways are encountered that force pedestrians into the road, so they are of limited benefit, only serving to reinforce the idea that this is a road, which in turn encourages greater vehicle speeds:

Many junctions in the village such as the exits from The Triangle and Chapel Hill presently have extremely limited and totally sub-standard visibility.

To apply modern highway standards to any new development within this zone is therefore inconsistent and out of character. Application of modern highway standards would be counter-productive and encourage an increase in traffic speeds which would perversely be less safe.

Many of the areas within this zone are effectively already Shared Space areas that we take for granted and use accordingly, such as the High Street, the area outside the off-licence and scout hut, and from Broad Street to the chemist. There are however three areas within this zone that do require attention:

1. Silver Street outside the recreation ground where the existing wide carriageway, kerbed footway and ample visibility lead to excessive traffic speeds. This could be addressed as part of the development of Brook House.

2. Broad Street. With so much space available there is a very exciting opportunity for a community project to establish a completely redefined area, to include a new quasi village square that could possibly incorporate farmers and other markets, and fairs. The Dickens evenings at Christmas have shown the energy and support that is available in the village to encourage such activity.

3. School Road. The area around the school and the wide approach from the village that encourages increased speed could all be addressed as part of a Shared Space project. This is a problematic area but there are very similar examples in Holland and France that have adopted the ‘Shared Space’ approach to solve the problem associated with traffic and children at the school that are worthy of further study.

Proposed Actions

1. The first step of the nine-step process outlined in ‘Shared Space – Room for Everyone’ is for political acceptance of the concept and acceptance that there is an area in the village that should be allocated as public, social space within a 20 mph zone, rather than traffic space. No other steps can be taken without this vision and adoption of this policy as step one.

2. Following the above make an application to North Somerset Council to agree to consult, advertise and make the 20mph Order.

3. Object to the current inappropriate highway proposals associated with the Brook House development. The current proposals incorporate a visibility splay around the bend in Silver Street, reducing the wall height to improve visibility for cars and with a new and unnecessary separate footway set back into the site behind a highway verge. By removing the wall, the improved visibility will inevitably increase traffic speeds further and increase the risk of accidents.

It is vital for road safety to retain the status quo and keep this wall. There is a benefit to the Brook House site in increasing the developable area of a cramped site. This could fund a request to the developer to enter into a Section 106 Agreement to develop a scheme to improve Silver Street as a first step towards the creation of a 20 mph zone as outlined previously.

4. Oppose any further traffic management proposals by North Somerset Council within the proposed 20mph zone. The recent introduction of pedestrian road markings in Silver Street from Lawrence Road to the Village Hall attempts to provide a segregated but inadequate pedestrian zone which emphasises separation. For cars these markings reinforce the idea that this is a road for which they have priority. For pedestrians this provides a false sense of security, and does not enhance their safety.

As the zone is usually subject to parked vehicles, pedestrians are forced to walk in the road in any event. Further schemes in the village that attempt such segregation would be similarly counter-productive and should be resisted.

5. Resist any proposals for engineered traffic calming that have been mooted recently, This would involve red paint, standard traffic signs, and speed humps, bumps and chicanes. Any such engineered and urbanised schemes would be completely out of character with the village and would be a retrograde step.

6. Sign Audit. Removal of all road markings and traffic signs other than street nameplates and the gradual introduction of landmarks and public art would enhance the social value of the space and make it even more attractive for pedestrians. There are many meaningless traffic signs that merely detract from the attractiveness of the village whilst doing nothing to promote improved road safety. Even the authorities in the City of Phoenix, Arizona recognise that ‘children at play signs are generally disregarded by motorists and give pedestrians a false sense of security’.

Excessive signage at Silver Street .

The lack of footway is not unusual in Wrington. Note that the adjacent properties would require Planning permission even to change their windows. Such Planning consultation was unnecessary to erect the signs.

Conclusions

The design of the roads through the village must not be left solely to the Street Authorities Highway and Traffic Engineers.

Planners, Architects, the Council’s Conservation staff, civic societies such as the Village Association and the Parish Council all have a role to play to develop the design of the public, social spaces within the village for the benefit of the whole community.

A complete reassessment of how public spaces are designed is currently taking place. Although this has originated in Holland with the ‘Shared Space’ initiative, campaigns have also recently started in the UK by English Heritage in their ‘Streets for All’ campaign which has been jointly published by The Department for Transport, and there are other recent initiatives by CPRE, CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, formerly the Royal Fine Arts Commission), and Transport 2000’s ‘20’s Plenty’ campaign.

Relevant programmes have already been started by UK Councils. Wilts CC have implemented a programme of removal of centre line road markings in 30 mph areas, as they have shown that this both reduces speeds and accidents, and Nottingham City Council have a ‘clutterbuster’ programme that has already removed over 2000 unnecessary traffic signs in the City.

There is a rapid growing level of support amongst several agencies that redefines how our public spaces should be designed. This has only recently been developed but this new-thinking should be recognised in Wrington, as it is highly relevant to the village. It is not too late to adopt this new design philosophy for the benefit of the whole community, otherwise we could be left having our village engineered and scarred. It should be recalled that it is not that long ago that engineers desecrated one of the finest Georgian Squares in Europe, Queen Square in Bristol. The Square has only recently been restored.

The last word must rest with a truly great Wringtonian and visionary, the Reverend Doctor Henry Waterland who was Rector of the village in the 18th Century. He successfully opposed the Bristol to Bridgwater Turnpike Trust’s proposals ensuring that the present A38 ran on its present line and did not pass through the village as ‘the parishioners would be demoralised or the quiet of the ‘town’ destroyed by the stress of the traffic’. Let us hope that it is possible to continue this excellent lead in the Reverend’s memory!

Phil Parker
Wrington
May 2006

philparker05@aol.com

phil.parker@ptl.co.uk

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Other reading and useful websites

‘Shared Space – Room for Everyone’ can be downloaded as a pdf file from www.shared-space.org/files/14445/SharedSpace_Eng.pdf

Reusrgence magazine published an interesting article by a Local Councillor in Stroud who has very neatly summarised the concept of Shared Space in his article ‘Green Streets are ‘Naked’ Streets’ and describes his conversion to the project. This can be viewed on www.resurgence.org/selection/booth0306.htm.

www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk is the website for Ben Hamilton-Baillie who is a Bristol-based consultant. Under ‘Articles’ on his site are many interesting articles including links to the above. Ben is probably the UK’s leading experts on the subject of Shared Space.

www.cabe.org.uk is the CABE website. Follow links via ‘campaigns and research’ to ‘public space’ and in the document ‘Risk and the Design of public space’ there are four articles the fourth of which is a very interesting article by Professor John Adams.

On www.english-heritage.org.uk you will find a description of their ‘Streets for all’ Campaign.
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Addendum - My Background

I am a Chartered Civil Engineer, and Member of the Institution of Highways and Transportation specialising in Highway Design since 1967. I have spent the last 20 years with Consulting Engineers in Bristol Designing and Project Managing detailed highway works. I am qualified to undertake Road Safety Audits, and have undertaken over 70 independent Road Safety Audits in the last six years on behalf of developers for local authorities throughout the South West.

It has become increasingly obvious to me during my work that traditional highway design is not always appropriate and that it is important to distinguish between when a road clearly has to be engineered (such as M5, A38 and A370) and when a road has to be sympathetically designed, and where engineering becomes totally subordinate to other architectural and environmental considerations.

To follow this up I have recently applied for and been successful in being awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship to study alternative design techniques on the near continent, under the title of ‘Sympathetic Highway Design. The concept of Shared Space is a major element of this study.