The Fear Factor Behind the Success of Shared Streets

Jonathan Coppage responds to the criticism of an earlier article describing the shared street concept:

For some reason this is the objection that immediately emerges everywhere the idea of shared space is raised: the British think ‘that may work for those upstanding Dutch, but not for us,’ Americans think ‘that may work for those nice Brits, but not us.’ Even in-country, you will often hear, ‘that may work in a small town, but not Jersey,’ ‘not Boston,’ ‘not where I’m from, have you seen these crazy people?’

But, according to Coppage, the fear expressed by critics of the shared street concept is exactly why the idea works:

Hans Monderman, the father of the shared space movement, made his name with the 2001 redesign of the Dutch town of Drachten’s town square. A town of 45,000, Monderman saw accidents fall from eight annually to one, yet was pleased to hear “that residents, despite the measurable increase in safety, perceived the place to be more dangerous. This was music to Monderman’s ears. If they had not felt less secure, he said, he ‘would have changed it immediately.’”

Coppage notes that the experiment is also about to have its moment stateside, with a new project in Chicago joining existing shared streets in Seattle and Buffalo.