page_title: Shared space
section_title: New Zealand
hierarchical_section_title: Shared space / Examples / New Zealand
caption_attribution_description: English: Darby Street shared space in Auckland, New Zealand. Looking west.
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: Several of Auckland's streets have been turned into shared spaces. These include Elliot and Darby Streets, Lorne street, the Fort street areas, all near Queen Street, Auckland and Federal Street by the Skytower. However, Auckland's first shared space is Wairepo Swamp Walk, completed mid-2010. Wairepo Swamp Walk is one of a number of transport infrastructure projects improving transport services around Eden Park as part of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. A research study has been undertaken by Auckland Transport in conjunction with the University of Auckland to evaluate city centre shared spaces in the Auckland CBD.
caption: Auckland, New Zealand responded to disability groups' concerns by ensuring that a strip of "accessible zone" would be  retained in the design. This strip is made off limits to vehicles by strategically placed street furniture, while the building edge and paving strips provide guidance to vision-impaired people.[23]
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