page_title: Shared space
section_title: Philosophy and support
hierarchical_section_title: Shared space / Philosophy and support
caption_attribution_description: English: New Road, Brighton. Modelled using the Shared Space philosophy. Motor vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians share the same space. Traditional road markings, signs and signals are absent.
context_page_description: Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as kerbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.
  Shared space design can take many different forms depending on the level of demarcation and segregation between different transportation modes. Variations of shared space are often used in urban settings, especially those that have been made nearly car-free, and as part of living streets within residential areas. As a separate concept, "shared space" normally applies to semi-open spaces on busier roads, and here it is controversial.
  Shared space is opposed in particular by organisations representing the interests of blind, partially sighted and deaf people, who often express a preference for the clear separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
context_section_description: The goal of shared space is to improve the road safety and vibrancy of roads and junctions, particularly ones with high levels of pedestrian traffic, by encouraging negotiation of priority in shared areas between different road users. Shared space is a "design approach rather than a design type characterised by standard features".
  Hans Monderman suggested that an individual's behavior in traffic is more positively affected by the built environment of the public space than by conventional traffic control devices and regulations. A reason for the apparent paradox that reduced regulation leads to safer roads may be found by studying the risk compensation effect.
  "We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behaviour...The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles." (Der Spiegel quotes Monderman)
  "When you don't exactly know who has right of way, you tend to seek eye contact with other road users. You automatically reduce your speed, you have contact with other people and you take greater care."
  Such schemes are claimed to have had positive effect on road safety, traffic volume, economic vitality, and community cohesion where a user's behaviour becomes influenced and controlled by natural human interactions rather than by artificial regulation. Monderman has stated that objections are more a matter of communication than design, stressing the importance of consulting all relevant groups during the design stage.
  The UK's Department for Transport issued national guidance on shared space in 2011. However in July 2018 it reversed its position and instructed local authorities to halt all new shared space projects, with Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani stating they "just don't work" for blind and partially-sighted people.
caption: A shared space scheme in New Road, Brighton, United Kingdom
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