Tonight:
9°c
The new battle of London is to be fought on the playing fields of Harrods.
The hellcats of Hans Town will mix it with the bullies of Basil Street.
Jet-setters who like to use the back streets of Knightsbridge as racetracks for Bentleys and BMWs and treat Harrods as a local convenience store are suddenly in the frontline of the war of civilisations. They don't like it.
Many of them are refugees to London from the machinations of mullahs and ayatollahs and perhaps saw the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as a safe haven, as menacing as a Cotswolds parish council.
They were wrong. They are in the grip of ruthless revolutionaries. The campaign to bring "shared streets" to London has moved onto their patch and that, one objector told the Standard, means "beggars, prostitutes, drug dealers" and an unprecedented "level of anger".
Kensington and Chelsea council may have the most archaic residents parking in London but on traffic management it is a knight in shining armour.
Under the guidance of a former deputy leader, Daniel Moylan, it has struggled to lead the capital into the new age of street design.
First in Kensington High Street, then in Sloane Square and now in Exhibition Road and Basil Street, it is attempting to introduce what is common practice in towns and cities abroad but is anathema to the reactionary 4x4 crazed inhabitants of its borough - the concept of shared space.
Since the concept demands a counter-intuitive shift in perception, it needs constant restatement. Like most people, I used to regard traffic separation and pedestrianisation as the way forward for traffic in towns.
Yet from Italian hill towns to American metroplexes, motor vehicles have not been replaced or excluded as the lifeblood of living settlements. They remain a part of city living.
We are conditioned to assume that, because cars are big and fast, they cannot co-exist with other road users. But cars are driven by people with eyes and ears.
They become lethal only when drivers are turned into zombies by concentrating on signs above and below their normal line of vision. They race as fast as they can between lights and crossings.
Shared or "naked" streets regard vehicles as people on wheels. They have a right to a share of public space, though not in any unique or privileged sense.
For half a century vehicles have been treated as metallic things, to be disciplined and dragooned by traffic engineers, with a forest of signs, lights, one-way streets, kerbs, railings, crossings and general delay.
As a result, drivers have no time or incentive to negotiate space with other street users. They just bully their way across town as directed by the engineers.
Most accident spots are near bus and cycle lanes, school gates and zebra crossings - in other words, where traffic is supposedly most regulated. The regulation merely leads to drivers being distracted. By making everyone feel safer, the engineers have made them less so.
It is a classic of health-and-safety dirigisme, stripping all street users of personal reliance and responsibility and causing accidents as a result. The most dangerous people in London are the road engineers. They encourage drivers to kill people.
Shared space removes all street clutter and visual distraction. The street is deliberately made to seem more confused, "policed" informally by the eyes and ears of its users.
Cyclists and jaywalkers go from being the most anarchic (and accident-prone) road users to being the most effective policemen.
Such schemes are in place in some 400 towns and cities across Europe. They can no longer be called exper-imental.
All have led to fewer street accidents and shorter journey times, as vehicles are no longer stopped at red lights but merely slowed where they encounter other road users.
What Kensington and Chelsea should do is take its conservative citizenry somewhere shared space is working.
If they cannot afford a trip to the Netherlands or Germany, they should visit Ashford in Kent. Here the local council, in collaboration with the designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie, took a leaf from the work of the Dutchman, Hans Monderman, and turned their town into the most progressive in England.
In the new shopping area, all distinction between road and pavements was erased and shallow drainage gullies redesigned by a local artist, with new lighting and street furniture.
The roads have acquired a new dignity and people comment on a new sense of community and courtesy. Cars must make their way gingerly through other road users, but since they are no longer held up at red lights their average speed has risen.
Astonishing as it may seem to the enemies of progress, the accident injury rate in Ashford has fallen to zero. Even the far more modest scheme in Kensington High Street has led to a 44 per cent cut in accidents.
The most popular objection, that such spaces must be a danger to the blind and disabled, is simply not proved in practice. They are safer for the blind, aided by special crossing points and a dramatic rise in driver care and courtesy.
In a hilarious attempt to fight the Basil Street scheme, residents have produced an artist's impression of their neighbourhood under shared space, with cars, cyclists, pedestrians, pushchairs and wheelchairs jostling for space between awnings and passers-by.
I can see that to those used to cruising the avenues of New York and the boulevards of Paris it must seem chaotic. Yet the picture displays the informality of an Italian piazza, the best advertisement I have seen for shared space.
My one complaint is that Kensington and Chelsea is so half-hearted in selling this revolution to its citizens. Indeed all London is in the traffic management Dark Ages.
The Mayor, Boris Johnson, who should know better, is still inert. He could draw up a shared-space map of central London in a weekend - starting with the whole of Mayfair - and launch a campaign to civilise the streets of the capital.
It would be his finest legacy. He can start by crushing the reactionaries of Harrods.
Reader views (19)
Simon is spot on. 'Shared space' has been proved to reduce accidents to pedestrians and cyclists and confrontations between road users. Far too many councils here are still pursuing the archaic methods of 'traffic calming' speed bumps, chicanes and myriad traffic lights, at enormous cost and counterproductive to their intent.
- Raman, - Eduardo, Belsize Park
Great idea..... but there should be one sign.
"No Honking"
Have you ever been to China???
- W.Palmer, North Vancouver, Canada
I can assure you, as an Ashford resident, that shared space is not working here. The blind people are terrified by it and are effectively excluded.Go here -
http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/sharedstreets/
- Stephen Fryer, Ashford Kent
Last nights decision by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to press ahead with a similar scheme in Exhibition Road and disregard their own disability access group to keep the kerbs and pedestrian crossings and ignor the representation from some 27 disabled organisations was just shameful. The fact that Cllr Paget-Brown referred to disabled people as 'the lame' and that the Transport Director said that no provision for disabled taxi or bus stops would be made and that they would have to use alternative roads shows the attitude of people making our decisions our streets. How can Boris Johnson fund a scheme which will discriminate against disabled people as we are about to host the 2012 Paralympics? We should all oppose these streets as they put the elderly and young children in danger and discriminate against disabled people. Who would want to rip out the kerbs and pelican crossings on a street and then ask children to cross a busy road? This is an accident waiting to happen. Write to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and ask them to change their plans.
- David, West London, London
Hans Monderman the father of the idea said that shared space is only for low trafficked, low speed, streets. It is not for high trafficked roads which must be subject to normal traffic management principles.People will not share space when vehicle flows exceed 100 per hr.The Dept for Transport has issued guidelines to this effect.
Unfortunately Kensington and Chelsea Council have shown no understanding of the need to restrict shared space schemes to meet this criterion. Their scheme at Sloane Square is very dangerous with 350 vehicles ,at 30mph, cutting across the path of 3500 people per hr. Numerous accidents and near misses have occurred. The same problem will occur around Harrods if this scheme goes ahead.
The Exhibition Rd is no longer a shared space scheme. K&C have belatedly accepted that people will not share space with 700 vehicles/hr.Vehicles and people are now separate.
Residents, the blind and partially sighted are concerned for their safety which is why we oppose these ill thought out schemes. There is no data that shows shared space makes people safer. Europe has not solved the problem of the blind and other disadvantaged groups safely navigating shared space . As a result Holland has stopped building them. Manchester is the latest of a growing number of UK cities to ban the use of shared space on safety grounds.
Dr Gordon Taylor
Chairman West London Residents Association
- Dr Gordon Taylor, London SW3 UK
Jenkins maybe lives on a different planet and must understand that that" Roads are for vehicles and pavements are for pedestrians. It will help if he can come off his space ship and visit Hans Road / Basil street intersection between 4 pm and 9 pm. Maybe he will have the courage to admit that his views are wrong at least for this part of Knightsbridge. We are all watching his space.
F Tabbah Resident Walton Place
- Farih Tabbah, Knightsbridge
Martin Stockley, being a Mancunian(a city no longer promoting shared space!) does not understand that Exhibition
Road is one of London's major arterial roads.
It currently handles 2000 vehicles an hour. If you constrain that flow it will go elsewhere, clogging up side streets as drivers create 'rat runs, or worse building up huge jams.
His idea that Daniel Moylan should 'push through' Exhibition Rd-against the wishes of residents, says much about his respect for democratic process.
Guide Dogs for the Blind say that their members cannot cope with shared space, as do other disability groups.
Even the late Hans Monderman stated that they do not work in major cities such as London.
It is curious how suddenly commentators appear from all parts of the UK to evaluate a London scheme ! Can they all be friends of Daniel ?
- Justin Downes Residents First, London SW1
Well said Simon. We have been designing and constructing these spaces throughout the U.K. for the past ten years but London has been resistant. Daniel Moylan's success in Kensington High Street has been a step forward but even that is only removal of clutter so it must be hoped that he can push through the Exhibition Road proposals.
If you want to see one of the best schemes we have completed, type New Road Brighton Shared Space into Google Images (or go to Brighton) and see how it has transformed a difficult, dull road into a brilliant, vibrant street.
- Martin Stockley, Manchester
@Abi Smith
Did you actually read the article?
"The most popular objection, that such spaces must be a danger to the blind and disabled, is simply not proved in practice. They are safer for the blind, aided by special crossing points and a dramatic rise in driver care and courtesy."
- Alastair, York
Your assertion that "Shared space removes all street clutter and visual distraction. The street is deliberately made to seem more confused, "policed" informally by the eyes and ears of its users" assumes that all responsible members of society have full use of their eyes and ears.
Shared streets means taking all pavements away and all safe pedestrian crossings. Which will deprive blind and partially sighted people of their independence when walking in city streets.
How do you propose to accommodate the needs of blind and partially sighted people within your liberated London? Or do you regard such people as more unnecessary "clutter"?
- Abi Smith, London
We (Acocks Green Focus Group) came to see it. It's brilliant. We were really impressed with Daniel Moylan, Peter Weeden (Kensington Engineer) who showed us round. See our trip to Kensington pics at
www.acocksgreenfocusgroup.org.uk
It is exactly what we need in Acocks Green!!!
- Julia Larden, Acocks Green, Birmingham, UK
One of Boris Johnsons first actions was to cancel the pedestrianisation scheme in Parliament Square. Surely one solution would be to create a shared space in front of Westminster Abbey and make the North and West sides two way to reduce traffic on this section of road.
As for the petrol heads who think they own the road well the fact is in central London most people DO NOT use a vehicle and so pedestrians should come first.
However, how K & C can develop the schemes will be threatened if the Western C-Charge zone is abolished and 10's of thousands of extra vehicles return to this part of London. Perhaps K & C need to campaign to retain the extension!!!
As for the scheme at Slone Square this would be better as a pedestrian zone.
- Melvyn, Canvey Island, Essex
Ha ha; the traffic there will be totally screwed!
- Jules_London, london
I see what they are trying to do outside Sloane Sq station, but someone needs to tell the taxi and white van drivers.
- Paul, London
I personally object to any idea that roads are only for cars but traditional road design has enfored that view in many drivers. In a city where pedestrian journeys must far outnumber ones by car it's surely justified that drivers should learn to share street space more fairly and safely. All the better if this can be achieved while making streets more attractive and without reducing actual journey times.
- Nigel, Streatham
I am usually very much against pedestrians being allowed in the road as they are meant for cars only, but if Boris thinks schemes like these are a good idea I guess I must be wrong and I like Simon's thinking.
- Kimberley, London
Well done K&C - the area outside Sloane Square Underground is greatly improved. I don't think that we can expect any major initiatives from Mayor Johnson, his only contribution so far has been to change the traffic signals in favour of vehicles - have you had the misfortune to try and cross Oxford Street recently?
- Carl, London
Simon is spot on. 'Shared space' has been proved to reduce accidents to pedestrians and cyclists and confrontations between road users. Far too many councils here are still pursuing the archaic methods of 'traffic calming' speed bumps, chicanes and myriad traffic lights, at enormous cost and counterproductive to their intent.
- Eduardo, Belsize Park
Wonderful article about the most innovative traffic initiative in London for decades!
- Manny Goldstein, London, UK
