Journal
Streets ahead
The late traffic engineer Colin Buchanan set the agenda for the pedestrianisation debate with 1963’s seminal ‘Traffic in Towns’ report, which concluded that civic life was fundamentally incompatible with motorised traffic. Following Buchanan’s guidelines, 1960s pedestrianisation schemes segregated the public realm into spaces for either people or cars; common practices were to build above-grade pedestrian walkways or to surround a car-free central shopping street by a fast-moving ringroad.
However, Buchanan’s approach has subsequently come under considerable scrutiny, as the total segregation method failed to take into account people’s ‘desire lines’ for movement. Jake Desyllas of pedestrian movement consultancy Intelligent Space explains: “The 1960s approaches were extremely invasive into the urban fabric. The ringroads created concrete collars around towns, cutting off walking routes from the town centres through to surrounding residential areas.”
Today’s pedestrianisation schemes take a more sensitive approach to people management, taking into account the principal users of a space and its context. In some areas – such as the north side of Trafalgar Square – an overwhelming demand for walking means that total pedestrianisation is the best option; in other locations, such as Exhibition Road in London, a controlled balance between people and cars is more viable.
Urban designer and movement specialist Ben Hamilton-Baillie, who is a consultant to Dixon Jones architects on the £35m scheme, says: “London should at last have a great street, with design elements that emphasise place and context over the standard linearity of highway design. The aim is to provide a continuity across the space, down which traffic can negotiate its way, but very much as a secondary function.” Discuss this article
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