NPR Story on "Shared Space" concept in Germany
 

Heard on NPR this morning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=18217318

The German town of Bohmte is trying a radical new approach to traffic management: tear down the street curbs and get rid of the signs. City officials hope that this will make people drive slower.

One of the approaches for Orcas Island in Washington state is to leave the roads narrow believing that traffic will slow down. As a biker I feel very insecure riding the roads and as a driver who drives the same roads praticlly all day long have seen bikers run off them. I'm amazed every summer that there aren't yet bad fatalities.

Personally in the US I don't believe this would work as drivers often feel they have rights over anyone else on the road and that if they kill someone, "then that's their own damn fault."

I don't see how it would work if every town did it. Drivers would loose their sense of caution if they drove like that every time - I dono.

Those have to be some fairly wide streets as they paved clear up past the sidewalks so there is lots of room for cars and bikes. I don't know where you would walk. Down the center of the road I guess. I have heard it said by more than a few people that traffic accidents go up when signs get installed.

The streets also have a bumpy texture so cars and bikes will go slower. I think you would have to experience the flow of traffic first hand to get the whole concept.

In my town and a few nearby smaller places the best busy routes for bikes are the old ones where they built a lane +3/4. They are like this to give delivery trucks and busses a place to stop while cars can still get around them safely. Newer suburban areas are never built like this. The extra space is used as a turn lane at intersections. I wish they would build modern roads like this.