'Naked Streets'
02-10-2005, 06:57 PM
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'Naked Streets'
No, not that kind of naked. 
I don't know if this is a good idea or not.
I don't know if this is a good idea or not.
By Shelley Emling
Cox News Service
London — Reasonable people might believe that any busy city street stripped naked of all markings, barriers, traffic lights and even curbs would spark little but chaos and carnage.
But they might be wrong.
The concept of the “naked street” has won rave reviews in Europe, so much so that traffic-clogged London plans to try out the idea.
Rather than using the standard array of road markings to tell drivers and pedestrians what they should be doing, the theory goes, they should be encouraged to use their own reactions in a “shared space” to take greater responsibility for their behavior.
Urban planners believe the experiment — in which the issue of who has priority, cars or people, is made intentionally ambiguous — will be an effective one. Not only will it calm traffic by bringing about reductions in speed, they argue, but it will decrease the number of accidents, too.
The street to be disrobed: Exhibition Road in London’s posh Kensington neighborhood, a popular thoroughfare that’s home to major tourist draws such as the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. A date for the conversion has not been announced.
Ben Hamilton-Baillie, an urban design specialist working on the scheme, said he believes the idea will prompt drivers to slow down, while mingling and making eye contact with pedestrians. The lack of signage, curbs and signals actually encourages drivers to self-regulate their actions and be more cautious, he said.
“No longer will we be treating drivers like they’re zombies,” Hamilton-Baillie said. “If you treat people like idiots they’ll behave like idiots.”
For years London, one of the world’s most congested cities, has been trying to get a handle on its traffic-choked streets. In 2003, for example, London began to charge drivers who enter the city’s center.
The concept of the naked street was spearheaded by the Netherlands, where traffic lights and markings have been stripped from several junctions in recent years. Today, many cities in Holland and Denmark have claimed success in reducing accident rates by removing markings.
Cox News Service
London — Reasonable people might believe that any busy city street stripped naked of all markings, barriers, traffic lights and even curbs would spark little but chaos and carnage.
But they might be wrong.
The concept of the “naked street” has won rave reviews in Europe, so much so that traffic-clogged London plans to try out the idea.
Rather than using the standard array of road markings to tell drivers and pedestrians what they should be doing, the theory goes, they should be encouraged to use their own reactions in a “shared space” to take greater responsibility for their behavior.
Urban planners believe the experiment — in which the issue of who has priority, cars or people, is made intentionally ambiguous — will be an effective one. Not only will it calm traffic by bringing about reductions in speed, they argue, but it will decrease the number of accidents, too.
The street to be disrobed: Exhibition Road in London’s posh Kensington neighborhood, a popular thoroughfare that’s home to major tourist draws such as the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. A date for the conversion has not been announced.
Ben Hamilton-Baillie, an urban design specialist working on the scheme, said he believes the idea will prompt drivers to slow down, while mingling and making eye contact with pedestrians. The lack of signage, curbs and signals actually encourages drivers to self-regulate their actions and be more cautious, he said.
“No longer will we be treating drivers like they’re zombies,” Hamilton-Baillie said. “If you treat people like idiots they’ll behave like idiots.”
For years London, one of the world’s most congested cities, has been trying to get a handle on its traffic-choked streets. In 2003, for example, London began to charge drivers who enter the city’s center.
The concept of the naked street was spearheaded by the Netherlands, where traffic lights and markings have been stripped from several junctions in recent years. Today, many cities in Holland and Denmark have claimed success in reducing accident rates by removing markings.
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