© Shaw + Shaw 2007
In June 2009, at a demonstration outside City Hall on London’s South Bank, protesters gathered to demand a meeting with Mayor Boris Johnson. Not an unusual occurrence, you might think... Fathers for Justice? Stop the War Coalition? In fact, the more than 100 campaigners represented the Guide Dogs for the Blind, and were expressing their objections to the proposals to transform Exhibition Road in Kensington, into a ‘Shared Space’: a public realm where pedestrians and vehicles would share the same surface. Projects like these, such as the acclaimed New Road in Brighton, lie at the heart of the current impetus to make more livable and inclusive cities, where the car is not excluded, but is no longer king of the street; yet the objections raised by groups such as the Guide Dogs demonstrates that there is still a fundamental disconnection between people and the planners and designers.
What lies at the heart of the controversy? Is the concept of Shared Space flawed, as some claim? And is there a way to accommodate everyone’s concerns without undermining the Shared Space principles? At New Road in Brighton, one of the first true Shared Space schemes implemented in the UK, many of the same issues were encountered.
The city of Brighton & Hove has a world-class reputation for its creative, leisure and cultural industries, and attracts millions of visitors. Its dramatic setting, sandwiched between the sea and south downs, constrains access and perceptions of the city. As a result, parts of the city are relatively inaccessible and ignored; other areas suffer overwhelming traffic congestion.
Landscape Projects, working with Gehl Architects from Copenhagen, were commissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council to assess its pedestrian and visitor experience: its urban structure, movement patterns and open air activities, both in winter and in summer; and to provide advice on public realm improvement projects which would result in a more walkable, relaxed, attractive and accessible city.
The most significant project to emerge from the study is at New Road: a street laid out in the early 19th century to divert people away from The Prince Consort’s new Brighton Pavilion. The street forms part of the City’s Cultural Mile: a connective public space linking the principle cultural institutions of the City.
Over the last century, New Road became increasingly run-down – dominated by the needs of vehicles rather than people. To that end, the initial brief from the client was to close the street to all vehicles; to reclaim the street and create a pedestrianised linear square for sitting and eating and drinking and watching. However, the unique condition at the site ensured the brief evolved alongside the design; informed by a detailed understanding of how people use the street and the surrounding theatres, restaurants and the Grade 1 listed Brighton Royal Pavilion and its gardens. Using methodologies devised by Professor Jan Gehl, the team collected information on who used the area, where they stood and how they moved in and out of the street.
We talked with local people and councillors about their aspirations and about how they used and understood the street; with traders associations about their fears of removing vehicles from the street; and with the various cultural establishments in the area. The new plan for the street incorporated the needs of all the different user groups: encouraging cycling, sitting, standing and walking activities based on people-focused public space programming. The new arrangement – which responded directly to people using the street – would be a Shared Space; a pedestrian dominated space where all vehicles were allowed.
The principles that the team applied were firmly rooted in a well researched body of work – precedents set by experienced practitioners such as Hans Monderman’s work in Holland, and new guidance in the Manual for Streets. This was complemented by the team’s own experiences – including Gehl Architects’ work in Copenhagen and other European cities, and the unique engineering approach of Martin Stockley Associates.
The design of the street reinforces pedestrian priority and encourages defensive driving and low speeds: the visual quality of the street is markedly different from the conventional approach, forcing all users of the street to become much more aware of their environment and encouraging eye contact between people. The team consulted with groups including Guide Dogs for the Blind, and included wayfinding measures for the visually impaired throughout – a tactile guidance strip along one side of the street; a contrasting strip along the other; and textured paving areas to mark thresholds, potential hazards and movement onto the shared surface. Drivers are transitioned to the street across a textured rumbled strip, whilst the surface was carefully detailed to hint at how people should arrange themselves; changes in the tone, module and finish of the paving working alongside the arrangement of the street furniture to provide an extra layer of information.
The street has a vibrant night time use – the surveys showed the highest pedestrian numbers were actually at night; so the design responded to the pattern, identifying lighting as a key component. Functional lighting along the street was complemented by the involvement of a lighting artist. The centrepiece – a finely crafted, long bench gave a well-needed place for people to linger in the street.
The project has transformed this part of Brighton City Centre, making a socially and environmentally sustainable public realm which is contributing to the city’s thriving economy. It has cemented itself as one of Brighton’s most important public places, becoming the forth most popular place for people to spend time in the city, just behind the beach. Since its opening, traffic levels in the street have dropped by 93%, whilst cycling and pedestrian numbers have risen by 22% and 162% respectively. English Partnerships selected New Road as an exemplar project for its Urban Design Compendium, whilst the project was lauded by CABE, and won awards from the Civic Trust, the National Transport Award for Urban Design, the Landscape Institute and the British Stone Federation.
Whilst acclaim was heaped upon the scheme, some groups made counter claims against the safety and inclusivity of the approach. The main conceit of shared spaces is to create places which are more ‘people friendly’ – creating social places which force users of the street to engage with each other, naturally establishing priority through eye contact. However, this approach can obviously be challenging for blind and partially sighted people who can feel unsafe and vulnerable in a street without the conventional demarcation of kerbs and other traditional streetscape devices. The team worked hard to resolve the paradox at New Road, incorporating wayfinding measures to ensure that the street considered the needs of all users, and maintaining that the behaviour of vehicle drivers would be modified such that slow moving and vulnerable pedestrians would no longer be at risk, even walking down the centre of the street.
Naturally, during the course of the project, and indeed over the following couple of years, the debate has matured as more projects are implemented and continually monitored, and as different interested parties undertake their own research. The Guide Dogs for the Blind have undertaken research which demonstrates that shared spaces do present significant navigation difficulties for blind and partially sighted people, providing insufficient information in the street. Their research – prepared by Danish consultants Ramboll Nyvig, who also formed part of the initial team at New Road – attempts to solve this problem, by setting out complementary proposals for methods of demarcation.
Many of their recommendations were incorporated at New Road: safe zones, subtle surface detailing hinting at notional footways, and the use of textured paving; but the research was released too far into the process to be fully incorporated. Had it come to light sooner, there is no doubt that some things would have been done differently. However, that is not to say that the approach was not successful; to quote the Stage 3 Safety Audit by MVA:
“The street now has a distinct character with the ambiance of a pedestrianised zone; motorists appear to behave as though they are intruders in the street; give almost total priority to pedestrians and most drive at the lowest possible speeds”.
“Council officers voiced the concerns of visually impaired persons about the use of New Road in its current form... The behaviour of drivers with respect to slow moving sighted pedestrians suggests that visually impaired people would not be in any special danger of a collision with a vehicle. Indeed the presence of a person with a guide dog or long cane may cause further modification of the current considerate driver behaviour that would further reduce risks.”
To say, “we got it right”, whilst pointing towards road safety audits, or to question the Guide Dogs’ research would be to miss a point: there is still work to do to ensure that the principles of Shared Space are to made to work for all. However, at New Road, it has been clearly demonstrated that a well crafted shared space can effect a civilised place, integrating people and traffic and rejuvenating a run-down area without putting lives at risk.
Landscape Projects,
2009
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 9:13AM | 
