Traffic-free routes or shared space: what’s best for pedestrians and cyclists?

Bristol was the venue for an absorbing debate this week between a leading advocate of separating pedestrians and cyclists from motorised traffic and a pioneer of shared space.

Andrew Foster

Should we separate pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular traffic or encourage them to mix? That was the question that attracted more than 100 people to a debate at the University of the West of England in Bristol this week. The debate pitted UWE academic Steve Melia, an advocate of separation, against Ben Hamilton-Baillie who coined the term ‘shared space’ in 2002 and, through his consultancy Hamilton-Baillie Associates, has since designed many such schemes across the country.

The...

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