Northumberland & Newcastle Society

Cut The Clutter

by Nigel Jenkins

In August Eric Pickles, the Community Secretary made a public plea to Councils to take positive action to remove unnecessary clutter from our streets.

The world of traffic and traffic management seemed cold, unfriendly, uniform, predictable and vehicle orientated. Answers to reducing dangers on our roads, beyond cutting car use, appeared to lie only in further segregating vehicles and pedestrians by adding more signs, barriers, signals and road paint. Indeed, encouraged by a reduction in casualty figures for such an approach, traffic engineers have been busy providing more road humps, bumps, chicanes, warning signs, protective guard rails, and so on.

A closer look at the statistics shows that this approach has come at a cost: the UK’s record for child safety is one of the worst in Europe and we have discouraged cyclists and pedestrians from using our streets. There is a new approach to traffic engineering that turns upside down much that many held true.

This new ‘shared spaces’ approach has been dubbed ‘naked streets’ by some, because it includes removing highway signage, traffic lights, speed bumps, centre lines and even pedestrian crossings - but there is much more to it than that.

It started some twenty years ago with Hans Monderman, a Dutch traffic engineer who was one of the first to challenge the prevailing view that traffic and pedestrians should be segregated. He found, in his hugely successful experiments, that by emphasising context and integrating drivers into the cultural and social world of the village or town, he could significantly improve safety, reduce speeds and enhance the built environment without adversely affecting traffic flows. In fact, in many areas congestion was reduced. Drivers will stop looking at signs and start looking at other people. Instead of relying on the street system for security, drivers are forced to use their reactions.

In Drachten, Holland, a busy intersection with over 22,000 vehicles a day has been redesigned without signs as a more attractive integral part of the town’s public realm; as a result, congestion and safety have improved. It is even claimed that you can safely walk backwards across the intersection with your eyes closed.

Success like Drachen have led to schemes in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain. The UK has been slower, but it is starting to explore these ideas. In a pioneering scheme in Kensington High Street, London, guard rails were taken down, resulting in a significant drop in injuries, while the busy shopping area of Shrewsbury High Street has been much improved by removing the usual signs and signals. Other schemes are planned around the country, including an ambitious project for London’s Exhibition Road. Nottingham City Council has even appointed a ‘Clutter Buster’ to remove redundant signage and street furniture, including over 10,000 ‘No Waiting at Any Time’ plates.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Women’s Institute and English Heritage are all pressing for changes of this kind to the look of our streets, as is The Northumberland and Newcastle Society, who have been running a campaign for 6 years now. As reported in May, Douglas Holbyn has made useful contacts with both Newcastle City Engineers and Northumberland County Council Highway Department, with some success, in localized areas. The City has since promised to remove ambiguous signage from the stretch of road between the A1 and the Brunton Lane junction.

But maybe it is time for members to take up the campaign in earnest and one way of helping would be to carry out ‘street audits’ in your area. English heritage provide a very useful format for carrying out this task and copies can be obtained from our Secretary by e-mail or downloaded from the English Heritage website (using the link on the right). The Tyneside and County Committees could appoint a co-ordinator each, to lead the project and inform current contacts at the local authorities, with a view to reporting our findings in due course. Further activities could include area reports, meetings, conferences etc.

With thanks to Philip Booth co-author of the report, ‘Better Streets for Stroud District’ at www.stroud.gov.uk/info/better_streets.pdf

City and County
November 2010