Shared space transforms British town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vzDDMzq7d0

When we reported on Poynton, England, in the January issue of Better! Cities & Towns, the above video was not publicly available. Now it has 90,000 views on You Tube, and tells a remarkable story about a £4 million ($6.4 million) street project that brought life back to a town formerly choked by traffic. The project removed a major traffic light and replaced it with two small "roundels." Pedestrian space more than doubled. Traffic lanes were drastically reduced (from three to one in each direction on the highway and two to one in each direction on the High Street). The aim is to create continuous, slow-speed traffic, and it seems to have worked. Pedestrians feel comfortable crossing at almost any point and bicycling activity has risen, according to the video. The two sides of the town are united. This could inform many kinds of street redesigns in the UK, US, and other parts of the world.

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