Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:The wikipedia article linked to points to "shared space". I'm not sure that's the same thing as decluttering. The New Road project in Brighton is claimed to have reduced car journeys by 90% and car road speeds to 10mph. That's not decluttering, that's just moving the traffic somewhere else. Some other road in Brighton is now crammed with nose to tail traffic that used to use this now warm and fuzzy "shared space". Another quote (about a scheme in Seven Dials) says "pedestrians are encouraged to wander across the road". This strikes me as just another word for pedestrianisation. All well and good in city shopping centres, but traffic still has to have somewhere to go. Looks like a way of getting drivers off the road, wrapped up in friendly sounding eco-speak. I'm struggling to find a reason, as a driver, to vote for it. As a pedestrian or a cyclist, it sounds lovely.
I've no time for what sounds like the anti-car policy at Brighton. It seems to me deserving of serious protest by drivers, and I hope they make that protest and give the local authority a bloody nose over it.
What they should be encouraging is a situation whereby the different road user groups understand each other better, and learn to function more harmoniously together, then everybody gets a fair deal.
Favouring certain groups, e.g. pedestrians and cyclists, by being a PITA to drivers is not the way to improve matters.
Best wishes all,
Dave.