jasonh wrote:drivers are so unused to the sight that they can't help paying more attention.
Gareth wrote:jasonh wrote:drivers are so unused to the sight that they can't help paying more attention.
Surely this is a transitory effect; more interesting is what happens when all road users have become used to the lack of signs and separation.
Big Err wrote:Switching off traffic lights at a busy junction has a similar effect as no one can claim right of way, the drivers tend to interact with each other in a helpful manner instead of the usual gesticulations etc. Unfortunately pedestrians don't normally stand a chance in these circumstances.
PeterE wrote:Big Err wrote:Switching off traffic lights at a busy junction has a similar effect as no one can claim right of way, the drivers tend to interact with each other in a helpful manner instead of the usual gesticulations etc. Unfortunately pedestrians don't normally stand a chance in these circumstances.
Unless there is a fairly even balance of flows it is likely that once drivers have got used to the arrangement the busier road will in effect end up "colonising" the junction, making it very difficult to get out from the minor road.
The same can be seen at roundabouts with a strong dominant flow.
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.
TripleS wrote: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.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote: 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.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Yes the car has been favoured and a balance is being restored, but cycle lanes and better pedestrian paths OFF the road, seem to me a much better and safer solution.
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